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THE DICKENS YEAR BOOK 



X; '^i-^vcx/vvo j v-'-vvi*/! 



The Dickens 
year Book 



COMPILED BY 

LOIS E. PRENTISS 

AND 

GERTRUDE C. SPAULDING 

ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

DAN SAYRE GROESBECK 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1913 



7K 4^^^ 
T7 



Copyright 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1913 



Published March, 1913 



//^ 



©CI.A343539 



CHARLES DICKENS 

Born, February 7, 1812 

Died, June 9, 1870 

Oh rare Charles Dickens ! You found us well, 
but you left us Weller." 



Janua^ 



I 



HAVE faith, and I wish to diffuse faith in the exist- 
ence of beautiful things — yes, even in those con- 
ditions of society which are degenerate, degraded 
and forlorn. I take it that we are born, and that 
we hold our sympathies, hopes and energies in 
trust for the Many and not for the Few. That we 
cannot hold in too strong a light of disgust and 
contempt, before our own view and that of others, 
all meanness, falsehood, cruelty, and oppression 
of every grade and kind. Above all, that nothing 
is high because it is in a high place, and that noth- 
ing is low because it is in a low place. This is the 
lesson which we may read alike in the bright track 
of the stars, and in the dusty course of the 
poorest thing that drags its tiny legs upon the 
ground. — Charles Dickens: Address at Hartford, 
Conn., 1842. 



The Dickens 
year Book 

Janua0^ 



"There's milestones on the Dover road!" 

— Mr. F/s Aunt 

*' Run a moist pen slick through everything, and start 

afresh." — Dick Swiveller 



Annual income, twenty pounds, annual expenditure, 
nineteen, nineteen six, result happiness. Annual in- 
come, twenty pounds, annual expenditure, twenty 
pounds, aught and six, result, misery. The blossom 
is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes 
down upon the dreary scene and — and, in short, you 
are forever floored." — Mr. Micawber 



My friends, peace be upon this house ! On the master 
thereof, on the mistress thereof, on the young maidens 
and on the young men! My friends, why do I ask 
for peace? What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it 
strife? No. Is it lovely and gentle and beautiful 
and pleasant and serene and joyful? Oh, yes! There- 
fore, my friends, I wish for peace, upon you and upon 
yours." — Mr. Chadband 



JlaimEap^ 



" I ast your pardon, ma'am, sez Mrs. Harris, and I humbly 
grant your grace, for if ever a woman lived as would 
see her fellow-creeturs into fits to serve her friends, 
well do I know that woman's name is Sairey Gamp." 

— Mrs. Gamp 



Errands gone 

On with fi 

Delity by 

Ladies and Gentlemen 

I remain 

Your humble servt 

Silas Wegg." 

— Silas Wegg 



" Water in the wash-hand basin 's a mask o' ice, sir. Fine 
time for them as is well wrapped up, as the Polar Bear 
said to himself, ven he was practising his skating." 

— Sam Weller 



If this here lasts much longer, Sammy, I shall feel it my 
duty as a human bein' to rise and address the cheer. 
There 's a young 'ooman on the next form but two, 
as has drank nine breakfast cups and a half and she 's 
a-swellin' wisably before my wery eyes." 

— Mr. Weller, Sr. 



Jfamiuiaig^ 



All was over in a moment. I had fulfilled my destiny. 
I was a captive and a slave. I loved Dora Spenlow 
to distraction. ... I was swallowed up in an 
abyss of love in an instant. There was no pausing 
on the brink — no looking down or looking back ; I 
was gone, headlong, before I had sense to say a word 
to her." — David Copperfield 



m 



What 's the good of references? It *s no satisfaction to 
be done by two men instead of one. One 's enough. 
A person who can't pay gets another person who 
can't pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a per- 
son with two wooden legs getting another person 
with two wooden legs to guarantee that he 's got two 
natural legs. It don't make either of 'em able to do 
a walking match." — Mr. Pancks 



— lii 

" Whether twenty Romuluses made a Remus, or hie, 
haec, hoc was troy weight, or a verb always agrees 
with an ancient Briton, or three times four was 
Taurus, a bull, were open questions with him." 

— Of Paul Dombey 



With the exception of the heel of a Dutch cheese — 
which is not adapted to the wants of a young family 
— there is really not a scrap of anything in the larder. 
I was accustomed to speak of the larder when I lived 
with papa and mamma, and I use the word almost 
unconsciously. What I mean to express is, that there 
is nothing to eat in the house." — Mrs. Micawber 




Wishing that your elth may be better than your looks, 
which your inside must be bad indeed if it's on the 
footing of your out." — Mrs. Badger 

Sorry, partner, that you're not picking up faster, but 
your soul 's too large for your body, sir ; that 's where 
it is.'* — Silas Wegg 



" You are troubled with remorse until the last act, then 
you make up your mind to destroy yourself. But 
just as you are raising the pistol to your head, a clock 
strikes ten. . . . You pause. You recollect to 
have heard a clock strike ten in your infancy. The 
pistol falls from your hand — you are overcome — you 
burst into tears, and become a virtuous and exemplary 
character forever afterwards." — Nicholas Nickleby 



-23 



Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir, Oliver Twist 
has asked for more ! ' " 

" There was a general start. Horror was depicted 
on every countenance. 

" * For more ! Compose yourself, Bumble, and an- 
swer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked 
for more after he had eaten the supper allotted by 
the dietary?' 

" * He did, sir.' 

" * That boy will be hung ! I know that boy will be 
hung ! ' " — From Oliver Twist 



' My name 's Jack Bunsby ! And what I says I stands to. 
Whereby, why not? If so, what odds? Can any man 
say otherwise? No. Awast then." 

— Captain Bunsby 



'* Tuesday. D. weak and nervous. Beautiful in pallor. 
(Do we not remark this in moon likewise? J. M.) 
D., J. M., and J. took airing in carriage. J. looking 
out of window and barking violently at dustman, oc- 
casioned smile to overspread features of D. (Of such 
slight links is chain of life composed! J. M.)." 

— Julia Mills 



" Wednesday. D. comparatively cheerful. Sang to her 
as congenial melody, Evening Bells. Effect not 
soothing but reverse. D. inexpressibly affected. In- 
stead, recited verses about self and young gazelle. 
Ineffectually. Also referred to Patience on Monu- 
ment. (Qy. Why on monument? J. M.)." 

— Julia Mills 



-m 



Mrs. Corney, ma'am, I mean to say this, ma'am, — that 
any cat, or kitten, that could live with you, ma'am, 
and not be fond of its home, must be an ass, ma'am." 

— Mr. Bumble 

Copperfield, you are a true friend ; but when the worst 
comes to the worst no man is without a friend who 
is possessed of shaving materials." — Mr. Micawber 



-E 



Within the first week of my passion I bought four sump- 
tuous waistcoats and took to wearing straw-colored 
kid gloves in the streets, and laid the foundations of 
all the corns I have ever had. If the boots I wore at 
that period could only be produced and compared 
with the natural size of my feet, they would show 
what the state of my heart was in a most affecting 
manner." — David Copperfield 



-B 



" Put me in the dock anywhere — I don't care where — 
and I says, ' My Lord, I am an honest man.' Put 
me in the witness-box anywhere — I don't care where 
— and I says the same to his lordship, and I kisses 
the book. I don't kiss my coat-cuff. I kisses the 
book." — Rogue Riderhood 



-m- 



Was you thinking at all of poetry?'" 

" * Would it come dearer? ' 

" * It would come dearer ; for when a person comes 
to grind off poetry night after night, it 's but right he 
should expect to be paid for its weakening effect on 
the mind.' " — Silas Wegg 



-ii 



Samivel Veller, sir, has conferred upon me the ancient 
title of grandfather vich had long laid dormouse and 
was supposed to be nearly hextinct in our family." 

— Mr. Weller, Sr. 



Jfamiiyiag^ 



" There are some low minds (not many, I am happy to be- 
lieve, but that are some) that would prefer to do 
what / should call bow down before idols. Positively 
idols; before services, intellects and so on. But 
these are intangible points. Blood is not so. We see 
blood in a nose and we know it. We meet with it in 
a chin and we say, * There it is ! That 's blood ! * " 

— Mrs. Henry Spiker 



m 



His manner was so bland. . . . though he had 
merely said, * A verb must agree with its nominative 
case in number and person, my good friend,' or 
* Eight times eight are sixty-four, my worthy soul,' 
anyone must have felt deeply grateful to him for his 
humanity and wisdom." — Of Mr. Pecksniff 



" * The very first time I saw that admirable woman, John- 
son, she stood upon her head on the butt end of a 
spear, surrounded with blazing fireworks.' 
" * You astonish me ! ' 

" * She astonished me! Such grace, coupled with 
such dignity ! I adored her from that moment.' " 

— Vincent Crummies 



Mr. Micawber's difficulties are almost overwhelming 
just at present, and whether it 's possible to bring him 
through them, I don't know. When I lived at home 
with papa and mamma, I really should have hardly 



JJamtuiag^ 



understood what the word meant, in the sense in 
which I now employ it ; but * Experentia does it,' as 
papa used to say." — Mrs. Micawber 

"My own, I sez, has fallen out of three-pair backs and 
had damp doorsteps settle on their lungs and one was 
turned up smiling in a bedstead, unbeknown. There- 
fore, ma'am, I sez, seek not to proticipate, but take 
'em as they come and as they go. Mine is all gone, 
and as to husbands, there 's a wooden leg gone like- 
wise home to its account, which in its constancy of 
walking into wine-vaults, and never comin' out again 
till fetched by force, was quite as weak as flesh, if 
not weaker." — Mrs. Gamp 



But do I see afore me him as I ever sported with in his 
times of happy infancy? And may I? — Ma^ I?" 

— Mr. Pumblechook 



" He often informed Mrs. Todgers that the sun had set 
upon him; that the billows had rolled over him; that 
the car of Juggernaut had crushed him ; and also that 
the deadly Upas tree had blighted him." 

— Augustus Moddle 

.m 

" It 's difficult to impart the receipt for punch, because 
however particular you may be in allotting your ma- 
terials, so much will still depend upon the individual 
gifts, and there being a feeling thrown into it. But 
the groundwork is gin." — Mr. Venus 



-m 



JmM.B^ 



No malice to dread, sir, 

And I forgot what to cheer. 
But truth to delight me 

And I forget what to cheer. 
Li toddle de om dee, 

And something to guide, 

My ain fireside, sir, 

My ain fireside." 

— Silas Wegg 



Jebrua^ 



HAVE always had and always shall have an earnest 
and true desire to contribute, as far as in me lies, 



I 

to the common stock of healthful cheerfulness and 
enjoyment. — Charles Dickens 



lebrua^ 



" Any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, 
whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short 
for its vast means of usefulness." — C. D. 



W 



1 



Captain Swosser always used to say of me that I was 
better than land ahead and a breeze astern to the mid- 
shipment's mess, when the purser's junk had become 
as tough as the foretopsel weatherings." 

— Mrs. Badger 



Shakespeare dramatized stories which had previously 
appeared in print, it is true.' 

" * Meaning Bill, sir? So he did. Bill was an adapter 
certainly, so he was; and very well he adapted, too, 
considering/ " — Mr. Timberry 



-ia 



** If ever man combined within himself all the mild quali- 
ties of the lamb with a considerable touch of the dove 
and not a dash of the crocodile or the least possible 
suggestion of the very mildest seasoning of the ser- 
pent, that man was he." — Of Mr. Pecksniff 



I've only got to say this here,' said Sam, stopping 
short, * that if I was the proprietor o' the Markis o' 
Granby, and that 'ere Stiggins came and made toast in 
my bar, I'd — ' 




"*What?' interposed Mr. Weller, with great anx- 
iety, 'What?' 

" * Pison his rum and water,' said Sam. 

" * No ! ' said Mr. Weller, shaking his son eagerly by 
the hand, *would you raly, Sammy; would you, 
though?' 

" * I would,' said Sam. *I would n't be too hard on 
him at first. I'd drop him in the water butt, and put 
the lid on and, if I found him insensible to kindness, 
I'd try the other persvation.' " — The Wellers 



Vich is your particular wanity? Vich wanity do you 

like the flavor on best? " — Sam Weller 

Betsy ! Drink fair, wotever you do ! " — Mrs. Gamp 



How I envy you your constitution! You are ready at 
all times to go anywhere and do anything! Such is 
Will ! I have no Will at all — and no Won't ; — sim- 
ply Can't." —Harold Skimpole 



" Mr. Tibbs was to his wife what the o is in go : he was 
of sonte importance ivith her ; he was nothing without 
her. Mrs. T. was always talking. Mr. T. rarely 
spoke ; but if it were at any time possible to put in a 
word, he should have said nothing at all ; he had that 
talent." — Sketches by Boz 



I have seen him again and again, his spoon a perfect fix- 
ture in his mouth, looking at your sister. I have seen 




bnjia] 



him standing in a corner of the drawing-room gazing 

at her in such a melancholy state that he was more 

like a pump than a man and might have drawed tears." 

»?^ . — Mrs. Todgers 

_lia 

" They 're always at it. And as for Marseilles, we know 
what Marseilles is. It sent the most insurrectionary 
tune into the world that ever was composed. It 
could n't exist without allonging and marchonging to 
victory or death or blazes or somewhere." 

— Mr. Meagles 



-ill 



Marsh . . . seated in an arm-chair . . . inces- 
santly crying out, * I am dead.' To which the women 
servants said, with great pathos (and some appearance 
of reason), ' No, you ain't, Marsh.' To which he per- 
sisted in replying, * Yes, I am ; I'm dead.' Some 
neighboring vagabond was impressed to fetch the 
Doctor, who said (the patient and his consolers being 
anxious that the heart should be the scene of afflic- 
tion), * stomach.' " — Letters 



So she makes all the apple pasties and does all the 
cooking, does she? . . . Perhaps you might be 
writing to her? ' 

" * I shall certainly write to her.' 

" * Ah. Well, if you was writing to her, perhaps 
you 'd recollect to say that Barkis was willing, would 
you?' 

" * Is that all the message? ' 

" ' Ye-es — Barkis is willing.' " 

— Mr. Barkis and David Copperfield 



J^feriuiay 



My dear Peggotty : — I have come here safe. Barkis 
is willing. My love to mamma. Yours affectionately. 
P. S. He says he particularly wants you to know — 
Barkis is willing.*' — David Copperfield 



Lovely creetur : — I feel myself ashamed and completely 
circumscribed in addressin' of you, for you are a nice 
girl, and nothing but it. Afore I see you I thought 
all women was alike. But now I find what a reg 'lar 
soft-headed, ink'red'lous turnip I must 'a been; for 
there ain't nobody like you, though / like you better 
than nothing at all. So I take the privilege of the 
day, Mary, my dear, to tell you that the first and only 
time I see you, your likeness was took on my hart in 
much quicker time and brighter colors than ever a 
likeness was took by the profeel machine, altho' it 
does finish a portrait and put the frame and glass on 
complete, with a hook at the end to hang it up by, 
and all in two minutes and a quarter. 

" Except of me, Mary, my dear, as your walentine 
and think over what I have said. My dear Mary, I 
will now conclude." — Sam Weller 



* Do you like the name of Nicodemus? ' 

" ' It is not, sir, a name as I could wish anyone I had 
respect for to call me by. But there may be persons 
that would not view it with the same objections.* 
"'What's your name?' 




bnnap^ 



" * Silas Wegg. I don*t know why Silas, and I don't 
know why Wegg/ " — Mr. Boffin and Silas Wegg 



Did its mothers make it up a beds then? And did its 
hair grow brown and curly, when its caps was lifted 
off and frighten it a precious pets a-sitting by the 
fire ? " — Tillie Slowboy 



" My feelings will not consent to be smothered like the 
young children in the tower. The more I press the 
bolster the more they look round the corner of it." 

— Mr. Pecksniff 






'Four Somethingean singers ranged themselves in front 
of a small apple-tree to look picturesque and com- 
menced singing their national songs, which appeared 
by no means difficult of execution, inasmuch as the 
grand secret seemed to be that three of the Some- 
thingean singers should grunt while the fourth 
howled." — From Pickwick Papers 



m 



Mrs. Crupp had indignantly assured him that there 
was n't room to swing a cat there; but as he justly 
observed to me, ' You know, Trotwood, I don't want 
to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat. Therefore 
what does that signify to me? ' " — Mr. Dick 



m 



" You 're a brimstone Idiot. You *re a scorpion — a 
brimstone scorpion ! You *re a sweltering toad. 



pfennap^ 



You *re a chattering, clattering broomstick witch that 
ought to be burned." — Grandfather Smallweed 



-R1 



" ' I don't believe there 's no sich a person ! * 
" * What ! you bage creetur, have I knowed Mrs. Harris 
five and thirty years, to be told at last that there ain't 
no sech a person living? Have I stood her friend in 
all her troubles great and small to come at last to 
sech a end as this, which her own sweet picter hang- 
ing up afore you all the time, to shame your Bragian 
words ! But well you may n't believe there 's no sech 
a creetur, for she would n't demean herself to look at 
you; and often has she said, when I have made men- 
tion of your name, which to my sinful sorrow I have 
done, ' What, Sairey Gamp ! Debage yourself to 
her!*" —Mrs. Gamp 



* Bought him at a sale. Eight wollumes. Red and gold. 
Purple ribbon in every woUume to keep the place 
where you leave off. Do you know him? ' 

" * The book's name, sir? ' 

" * I thought you might have knowed him without it. 
His name is Decline-and-Fall-off the Rooshian Em- 
pire.' '* -- Mr. Boffin 



My friends, what is this which we behold as being 
spread before us? Refreshment. Do we need refresh- 
ment, then, my friends? We do. And why do we 
need refreshment, my friends? Because we are but 
mortal, because we are but sinful, because we are but 



pbima^ 



of the earth, because we are not of the air. Can we 
fly, my friends? We can not." - Mr. Chadband 

_R1 



" * Very pleasant premises.' 

" * Pardon me. It is the abode of conscious though 

independent poverty.' " - Mrs. Wilfer 

" * You are master here, R. W., it is as you thmk, 

4. »r.j Ar^*» — The Same 

not as I do. 

^P ' 

" I have no doubt you know already not only because I 
have thrown it out in a general way but because 
I feel I carry it stamped in burning what 's-his-names 
upon my brow that before I was introduced to the 
late Mr. F. I had been engaged to Arthur Clennam 
•^Mr, Clennam in public where reserve is necessary. 
Arthur here. -Flora Finching 



Dear boy and Pip's comrade, I 'm not a-going for to tell 
you my life, like a song or a story book. But to give 
it to you short and handy I ^11 put it at once into a 
mouthful of English: In jail and out of jail, in jail 
and out of jail, in jail and out of jail. There you 've 
got it ; that 's my life." - Magwitch 



*Well,' said Sam, 'he's in a horrid state o' love; 
reg'larly comfoozled, and done over with it. Here 's 
Mr. Vinkle reg'larly sewed up with desperation, 

Miss.' 

" * Ah! ' said Arabella, drawing nearer the wall. 



pbiraap^ 



" * Ah, indeed,' said Sam. * Ve thought ve should 
ha' been obliged to strait- veskit him last night ; he 's 
been a-ravin* all day ; and he says if he can't see you 
afore tomorrow night 's over, he vishes he may be 
somethin' unpleasanted if he don't drownd hisself.' " 

— Sam Weller 



-l^ 



And with regard to being spruce, that 's where the ag- 
gravation of it is. Any man may be in good spirits 
and good temper when he 's well-dressed. There 
ain't much credit in that. If I was very ragged and 
very jolly then I should begin to feel I had gained a 
point." — Mark Tapley 



" The chairman felt it his imperative duty to demand of 
the honorable gentleman, whether he had used the 
expression which had just escaped him in a common 
sense. 

" Mr. B. had no hesitation in saying that he had 
not. He had used the word in its Pickwickian sense. 
(Hear, hear!) He entertained the highest regard and 
esteem for the honorable gentleman and merely con- 
sidered him a humbug in the Pickwickian point of 
view." — From Pickwick Papers 



f>S^s:'■:;./w•>■^*<■---:^'',■S'y1"Pji■ 







Z^!^MW^i?^^W^ 



JV^arch 



HARLES DICKENS—the philanthropist who has 
conferred the greatest happiness on the greatest 
number. 

— Thurlow Weed 



JV^arch 



Her Bible was bound, like her own construction of it, 
in the hardest, barest and straitest boards, with one 
dinted ornament on the cover like the drag of a chain, 
and a sprinkling of red upon the edges of the leaves 
— as if it, of all books! were a fortification against 
sweetness of temper, natural affection and gentle in- 
tercourse." Mrs. Clennam 



Well, be it so, or be it son 't, you must be a common 
scholar afore you can be a oncommon one. The king 
upon his throne, with his crown upon his head, can't 
sit and write his Acts of Parliament in print, without 
having begun, when he were a unpromoted prince, 
with the alphabet — begun at A too, and worked his 
way to Z." — Joe Gargery 



'It's the seasoning as does it. They're all made o' 
them noble animals ' pointing to a nice little tabby 
kitten, * and I seasons 'em for beefsteak, weal or kid- 
ney, according to the demand. And more than that, 
I can make a weal a beefsteak, or a beefsteak a kid- 
ney, or any one on 'em a mutton at a minute's notice 
as the market changes and tastes wary.' " 

— Sam Weller 



Captain Cuttle is my name and England is my nation. 
This here is my dwelling-place and blessed be cre- 
ation :— Job." — Captain Cuttle 



]%ireh 



It is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth — for 
fear of accidents — and while the fork is reserved for 
that use, it is not put farther in than necessary. Also, 
the spoon is not generally used overhand but under. 
This has two advantages : you get at your mouth bet- 
ter (which, after all, is the object) and you save a 
good deal of the attitude of opening oysters on the 
part of the right elbow." — Herbert Pocket 



If at the sacrifice of all my property I could get trans- 
migrated into Miss Dombey's dog, I — I really think I 
should never leave off wagging my tail ! Mine ain't a 
selfish affection, you know, it 's the sort of thing with 
me that if I could be run over — or trampled upon — 
or — or thrown off a very high place — or anything 
of that sort, for her sake, it would be the most delight- 
ful thing that could happen to me." — Mr. Toots 



Wot does he mean by the soft sex, Sammy? ' 

" * The womin.' 

" * He ain't far out there, Sammy. They must be a 
soft sex if they let themselves be gammoned by such 
fellers as him — a wery soft sex indeed.* " 

— Mr. Weller, Sr. 



" Ever the best of friends, ain't us, Pip? Well, then, 
that 's all right. That 's agreed upon. Why go into 
subjects, old chap, which as betwixt two sech must be 



i^fclh 



forever onnecessary? Inere 's enough subjects as be- 
twixt two sech, without onnecessary ones." 

— Joe Gargery 



" Now I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There 's a 
young man hid with me in comparison with which I 
am a Angel. That young man hears the words I 
speak. He has a secret way, pecoolier to himself, of 
getting at a boy's heart and liver. It is in wain for a 
boy to attempt to hide from that young man. I am a 
keeping him from harming of you now. I find it wery 
hard to hold that young man off your insides." 

— Pip's Convict 

-lia 

" He came in here, ordered a glass of this ale — Tvould 
order it — I told him not — drank it, and fell dead. 
. . . You see our people don't like things being 
ordered and left. It offends 'em. But I '11 drink it, if 
you like. I 'm used to it, and use is everything. I 
don't think it '11 hurt me, if I throw my head back and 
take it off quick. Shall I? " 

— The Obliging Waiter in David Copperiield 



" When a young lady 's as mild as she 's game and as 
game as she 's mild, that 's all I ask and more than I 
expect. She then becomes a queen, and that 's about 
what you are yourself." — Inspector Bucket 



-m 



Was there ever such a Roman as our friend Chiv? Was 
there ever a man of such purely classical turn of 



Marolhi 



thought, and of such a toga-like simplicity of nature? 
Might he not, gents both, have sat upon a tripod in 
the ancient times and prophesied to a perfectly un- 
limited extent, if previously supplied with gin-and- 
water at the public cost? " — Mr. Tigg 



-m 



Bones warious. Skulls warious. Preserved Indian 
baby. African ditto. Bottled preparations warious. 
What's in them hampers? I don't quite remember. 
Say human warious. Cats. Articulated English baby. 
Dogs. Glass eyes, warious. Ducks. Mummied birds. 
Cuticle warious." — Mr. Venus 



-m 



Mrs. Harris, I sez to her, don't name the charge, for if 
I could afford to lay all my fellow-creeturs out for 
nothink, I would gladly do it, sich is the love I bears 
'em. But what I always sez to them as has the man- 
agement of matters, be they gents or be they ladies, 
is, don't ask me whether I won't take none or whether 
I will, but have the bottle on the chimbley-piece and 
let me put my flps to it when I am so dispoged." 

— Mrs. Gamp 



Ho, yes! My only becoming occupations is to help 
young flaunting pagins to brush and comb and titi- 
wate themselves into whitening sepulchres and leave 
the young men to think there ain't a bit o' padding 
in it, nor pinchings-in, nor fillings-out, nor pomatums, 
nor deceits nor earthly wanities, ain't it, Miss?" 

— Miss Miggs 




-IS 



" I am well aware that I am the umblest person going, 
let the other be where he may. My mother is like- 
wise umble. We live in a umble abode, but we have 
much to be thankful for. My father's former calling 
was umble; he was a sexton. Umble we are, umble 
we have been, and umble we shall ever be. We know 
our station and are thankful in it." Uriah Heep 



" A pale, puffy-faced, dark-haired person of 30 with big, 
dark eyes that wholly wanted luster, and a dissatis- 
fied, doughy complexion, that seemed to ask to be sent 
to the baker's." _ Of Bazzard 

" He has such an obvious disposition to pimples, that the 
bright spots on his cravat, the rich pattern on his 
waistcoat, and even his glittering trinkets, seemed to 
have broken out upon him, and not to have come into 
existence comfortably." _ Qf George Chuzzlewit 

" If he were really not in the habit of drinking more than 
was exactly good for him, he might have brought an 
action against his face for libel and have recovered 
heavy damages." _ Of Fang 



I don't care whether it 's unsportsmanlike or not, I 'm 
not going to be shot in a wheelbarrow for the sake of 
appearances to please anybody.' " -^j. pickwick 



IE! 

*' He 's a-breaking his heart for her and I would wish to 
take the liberty to ask how it 's to be made good to 
his parents when bust? He played with her as a 

child when in that yard a child she played 

She answered, ' No, John, I can not have you. . . . 
It is my intentions to be always a sacrifice/ This is 
the way in which she is doomed to be a constant slave 
to them that are not worthy that a constant slave she 
unto them should be." — Mrs. Chivery 



" Can I view thee panting, lying 
On thy stomach, without sighing; 
Can I unmoved see thee dying 
On a log 
Expiring frog! 

"Say, have fiends in shape of boys. 
With wild hallo, and brutal noise. 
Hunted thee from marshy joys. 
With a dog. 
Expiring frog ! " 

— Mrs. Leo Hunter 



-m 



-M 



Head, potry — chapter, literary friends — name. Snow- 
grass ; ver good. Introduction to Snowgrass — great 
poet — friend of Peek Weeks — other sweet poem — 
what is that name? — Fog-Perspiring Fog — ver good 
— ver good indeed." — Count Smorltork 



J^airclhi 



Dear Mrs. B. — Chops and tomato sauce. Yours, Pick- 
wick.* Gentlemen, what does this mean? 'Chops and 
tomato sauce! Yours, Pickwick.' Chops! Gracious 
Heavens ! And tomato sauce ! Gentlemen, is the hap- 
piness of a sensitive and confiding female to be trifled 
away by such shallow artifices as these? " 

— Sergeant Buzfuz 



If the law supposes that, the law is an ass, — an idiot. 
If that 's the eye of the law, the law 's a bachelor." 

— Mr. Bumble 



-m 



Would have sent the stockings as desired, but is short 
of money, so forwards a tract instead, and hopes Gray- 
marsh will put his trust in providence. Hopes that 
he will study in everything to please Mr. and Mrs. 
Squeers, and look upon them as his only friends ; and 
will not object to sleeping five in a bed, which no 
Christian should." — Graymarsh's Maternal Aunt 



In came Dumps, feeling about as much out of place as 
a salmon might be supposed to be on a gravel walk. 
* The baby? Decidedly not like you! Oh, certainly 
not. . . . I 'm no judge, of course, in such cases ; 
but I really think he 's more like one of those little 
carved representations that one sees blowing a 
trumpet on a tombstone.' " — Mr. Dumps 



J^irek 



* Emma ! * said Mr. Micawber, * the cloud is passed from 
my mind. Mutual confidence, so long preserved be- 
tween us, is restored to know no further interruption. 
Now, welcome poverty,' cried Mr. Micawber, shedding 
tears, * welcome misery, welcome homelessness, wel- 
come hunger, rags, tempest and beggary. Mutual 
confidence will sustain us to the end.' " 

— Mr. Micawber 



^m 



" Henrietta informs Thomas that my eyes are open to 
you. I must ever wish you well, but walking and us 
is separated by an unfarmable abyss. One so malig- 
nant to superiority — Oh, that look at him ! Can never 
conduct. 
" P. S. To the altar." — Henrietta 



Train up a fig-tree in the way it should go, and when 
you are old, sit under the shade of it. Overhaul the 
— well, I ain't quite certain where that 's to be found, 
but when found make a note of." — Captain Cuttle 



My informiation (extra syllable for the sake of empha- 
sis) my informiation were my own experience, which 
is usually considered to be good guidance. But 
whether so or not, I was put in youth to a very gen- 
teel boarding-school and a poorness of blood flowed 
from the table which has run through all my life." 

Mrs. Billickin 



i%irclh 



^m 



"When youVe a married man, Samivel, you'll under- 
stand a good many things as you don't now; but 
vether it 's worth while going through so much to 
learn so little, as the charity boy said ven he got to 
the end of the alphabet, is a matter of taste." 

— Mr. Weller, Sr. 



-m 



The gushing fountains which sparkle in the sun must 
not be stopped in mere caprice. The Oasis in the 
Desert of Sahara must not be plucked up idly." 

— Julia Mills 



lBa^!?S?!;ftS^2^J^^ 



April 



THE day he penned his first book he made his coun- 
try happier, he made it younger, he made it better. 
Today we reward him with abiding affection, 
given him from a multitude of grateful hearts. 

— The London Times 



ni 



-p 



BILST 

UM 

PSHI 

S.M. 

ARK 

— Mr. Pickwick's Antiquarian Discovery 



Then idiots talk of Energy. If there is a word in the 
dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abomi- 
nate it is Energy. It is such a conventional supersti- 
tion, such parrot gabble." — Eugene Wrayburn 



" If ever an Alphonse carried plain Bill in his face and 
figure, that page was the boy." 

— Of Mrs. Wititterly's page 

" I never see any difference in boys. I only know two 
sorts of boys — mealy boys and beef-faced boys." 

— Mr. Grimwig 

" He 's enough to break his mother's heart, is this boy ! 
I wish I had never brought him up. He 'd be sharper 
than a serpent's tooth if he was n't as dull as ditch- 
water." — Jenny Wren 



* You are quite a philosopher, Sam,' said Mr. Pick- 
wick. * It runs in the family, I believe, sir,' replied 
Mr. Weller. * My father 's werry much in that line 



AP2°2l 



now. If my mother-in-law blows him up, he whistles. 
If she flies in a passion and breaks his pipe, he steps 
out and gets another. Then she screams werry loud 
and falls in 'sterics and he smokes werry comfortably 
till she comes to again. That 's philosophy, ain't it? ' 
* A very good substitute for it, at all events,* said Mr. 
Pickwick." —-Sam Weller 



" He had heerd it given for a truth that accordin' as the 
world went round, which round it did rewolve un- 
doubted, even the best of gentlemen must take his 
turn of standing with his head upside down and his 
air flying the wrong way into what you might call 
Space. Wery well, then. . . . That gentleman's 
ed would come up'ards when his turn come, that 
gentleman's air would be a pleasure to look upon 
being all smooth again." — Mr. Plornish 



" * My dear Doctor,' said I, * what is my wife's complaint? 
Tell me all. I can bear it. Is it nerves? ' * My dear 
fellow,' he said, ' be proud of that woman — make 
much of her; she is an ornament to the fashionable 
world and to you. Her complaint is soul.' " 

— Mr. Wititterly 



*' Mr. Squeers had but one eye and the popular prejudice 
runs in favor of two. And when he smiled his expres- 
sion bordered closely on the villainous." 

— From Nicholas Nickleby 



^nl 



What are you up to, Aggerawayter? . . . Saying 
your prayers ! You 're a nice woman ! What do you 
mean by flopping yourself down and praying agin 
me? . . . You werent praying for me! And if 
you were I won't be took the liberty with." 

— Mr. Cruncher at home 



I go SO far as to say, Miss, morehover,' proceeded Mr. 
Cruncher, with a most alarming tendency to hold 
forth as from a pulpit — * and let my words be took 
down and took to Mrs. Cruncher through yourself — 
that wot my opinion respectin' flopping has undergone 
a change, and that wot I only hope with all my heart 
is as Mrs. Cruncher may be flopping at the present 
time.* " — Mr. Cruncher in Paris 



-M 



Sir: — My pa requests me to write to you, the doctors 
considering it doubtful whether he will ever recuver 
the use of his legs which prevents his holding a pen. 
We are in a state of mind beyond everything and my 
pa is one mask of brooses both blue and green like- 
wise two forms are steepled in his Goar. We were 
kimpelled to carry him to the kitchen where he now 
lays. You will judge from this that he has been 
brought very low." 

— Fanny Squeers to Ralph Nickleby 



** When your nevew that you recommended for a teacher 
had done this to my pa and jumped upon his body 



Apnl 



with his feet and also langwedge which I will not 
pollewt my pen with describing, he assaulted my ma 
with dreadful violence, dashed her to the earth, and 
drove her back comb several inches into her head. 
A very little more and it must have entered her skull. 
We have a medical certifiket that if it had the torter- 
shell would have affected the brain." — The Same 



-m 



" Me and my brother were then the victims of his feury 
since which we have suffered very much which leads 
us to the arrowing belief that we have received some 
injuries in our insides especially as no marks of vio- 
lence are visible externally. I am screaming out 
loud all the time I write and so is my brother which 
takes off my attention and I hope will excuse mis- 
takes." — The Same 



The monster having sasiated his thirst for blood ran 
away, taking with him a boy of desperate caracter 
that he had excited to rebellyon, and a garnet ring 
belonging to my ma, and not having been appre- 
hended by the constables is supposed to have been 
took up by some stage-coach." — The Same 



-m 



** My pa begs that if he comes to you the ring may be re- 
turned, and let the thief and assassin go, as if we have 
him prosecuted he would only be transported, and if 
he is let go he is sure to be hung before long which 



Ap2°il 



will save us trouble and be much more satisfactory. 
Hoping to hear from you when convenient, 
" I remain yours and cetrer 

" Fanny Squeers. 
" P. S. I pity his ignorance and despise him." 

— The Same 



Mr. Wegg, if you was brought here loose in a bag to be 
articulated, I 'd name your smallest bones, blindfold, 
equally with your largest, and I 'd sort 'em all and 
sort all your wertabrae in a manner that would 
equally surprise and charm you." — Mr. Venus 



-U 



Don't use your temper as well as your money,' says 
Mr. George, calmly knocking the ashes out of his pipe. 
* Do you know what that tune is, Mr. Smallweed?' 
he adds, after breaking off to whistle one, accompanied 
on the table with an empty pipe. * Tune? ' replied the 
old man. * No, we never have no tunes here.' * That 's 
the Dead March in Saul. They bury soldiers to it ; so 
it's the natural end of the subject. Good evening, 
Mr. Smallweed.' " — Mr. George 



He is, without exception, the highest-minded, the most 
independent-spirited, most original, spiritual, classi- 
cal, talented, and most thoroughly Shakespearian, if 
not Miltonic, and at the same time the most disgust- 
ingly unappreciated dog I know." *— Mr. Tigg 






Miss P. sat upon a stool because she was all girlishness 
and playfulness and wildness and kittenish buoyancy. 
Miss P. sat upon a stool because of her simplicity 
and innocence which were very great — very great." 

— Of Miss Pecksniff 



-m 



Under the impression that your peregrinations in this 
metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that 
you might have some difficulty in penetrating the 
arcana of the modern Babylon — in short, that you 
might lose yourself — I shall be happy to call this 
evening and install you in the knowledge of the 
nearest way." — Mr. Micawber 



"M 



I never wanted two or three words in my life that I 
didn't know where to lay my hand upon 'em. It 
comes of not wasting language as some do." 

— Captain Cuttle 



-m 



He made a fortunate discovery of a means of entertain- 
ing himself and dividing the long day into stages 
without neglecting business. . . . Before day- 
light in the winter time he went to and fro in his little 
oilskin cap and cape, piercing the heavy air with his 
cry of * Morning paper ' which, about an hour be- 
fore noon, changed to * Morning pepper,* which, at 
about two, changed to * Morning pipper ' which, in 
a couple of hours, changed to * Morning popper ' and 
so, declined with the sun into * Evening pupper.* " 

— Adolphus Tetterby 



Aps'il 



Will she call me ' sir ' ? Me, who dote upon her with 
the demdest ardor. She who coils her fascinations 
round me like a pure and angelic rattlesnake? It will 
be all up with my feelings. She will throw me into 
a demd state." — Mr. Mantalini 



-m 



** Some people may be Rooshians and others may be 
Prooshians. They are born so, and will please them- 
selves. Them as is of other naturs thinks different.'* 

— Mrs. Gamp 



" * Yes, I have a pair of eyes,' replied Sam, * and that 's 
just it. If they wos a pair of patent double million 
magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power, p'raps I 
might be able to see through a flight o' stairs and a 
deal door; but bein* only eyes, you see, my vision is 
limited.' " — Sam Weller 



" Every baby born into the world is a finer one than the 
last." — C. D. 

" I hope they will bless their own good fortune, which 
has born them superior to common people's children." 

— Mrs. Kenwigs 



-1 



" Werry glad to see you, indeed, and hope our acquaint- 
ance may be a long 'un, as the gen'l'm'n said to the 
fi' pun' note." — Sam Weller 






*' There 's small glasses on the shelf. Give me the one 
without a foot. I gets my living by the sweat of my 
brow, and it *s good enough for me ! " 

— Rogue Riderhood 



* George/ said Mr. Bagnet, * You know me. It *s my old 
girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own 
it to her before her. Discipline must be maintained. 
Whatever the old girl says do — do it.* * She is a 
treasure ! ' exclaimed Mr. George. * She 's more, but 
I never own it before her. Discipline must be main- 
tained.' " — Mr. Bagnet 



" His family was as old as the hills and infinitely more 
respectable. . . . He has a general opinion that 
the world might get on without hills, but would be 
done up without Dedlocks.'* — Of Sir Leicester 



-m 



I '11 put my hand in no man's hand,' said Mr. Micaw- 
ber, puffing and sobbing, to that degree that he was 
like a man fighting with cold water, * until I have — 
blown into fragments — the — a — detestable — ser- 
pent — HEEP! I'll pertake of no one's hospitality 
until I have — a — moved Mount Vesuvius — to — 
eruption — on — a — the abandoned rascal — HEEP ! 
Refreshment — a — underneath this roof — particu- 
larly punch — would — a choke me — unless — I had 
— previously — choked the eyes — out of the head of 




ID 



— interminable cheat and liar — HEEP ! I — a — I'll 
know nobody and — a — say nothing — and — a — 
live nowhere — until I have crushed — to — a — un- 
discoverable atoms — the — transcendent and immor- 
tal hypocrite and purjurer HEEP ! ' " 

— Mr. Micawber 



K^y 



VERY page a clean page, every line a help to right 
living, right feeling and right thinking; and all 
with a joyous spontaneity that will hold the love 
of millions yet unborn. — F. Hopkinson Smith 



Macv 



The First of May! There is a merry freshness in the 
sound, calling to our minds a thousand thoughts of all 
that is pleasant and beautiful in Nature, in her most 
delightful form. What man is there, over whose mind 
a bright spring morning does not exercise a magic 
influence — carrying him back to the days of his child- 
ish sports, and conjuring up before him the old green 
field with its gently-waving trees where the birds sang 
as he has never heard them since — where the butter- 
fly fluttered far more gaily than he ever sees him 
now, in all his ramblings — where the sky seemed 
bluer, and the sun shone more brightly — where the 
air blew more freshly over greener grass, and sweeter- 
smelling flowers — where everything wore a richer 
and more brilliant hue than it is ever dressed in now ! 
Such are the deep feelings of childhood, and such are 
the impressions which every lovely object stamps 
upon its heart ! '* — Sketches by Boz 



" Whoever would begin to be worried with letting lodg- 
ings that wasn't a lone woman with a living to get 
is a thing inconceivable to me, my dear; excuse the 
familiarity, but it comes natural to me in my own 
little room, when wishing to open my mind to them 
that I can trust and I should be truly thankful if they 
were all mankind, but such is not so, for to have but 
a furnished bill in the window and your watch on the 
mantlepiece, and farewell to it if you turn your back 
for but a second. However gentlemanly the manners ; 




^^ 



nor is being of your own sex any safeguard as I have 
reason, in the form of sugar-tongs, to know.'* 

— Mrs. Lirriper 



I have been suffering myself from another kind of 
malady, a severe, spasmodic house-buying-and-repair- 
ing attack which has left me extremely weak, and all 
but exhausted. The seat of this disorder has been the 
pocket." — Letters 

Coals, candles and house-rent free! Oh, Mrs. Corney, 
what an angel you are ! " — Mr. Bumble 



Why, you don*t mean to say that there was no black 
welwet CO— ch? At least there was dogs? Come! 
If there weren't no weal cutlets, at least there was 
dogs? A dog? A puppy? Come!" 

Joe Gargery 



" I'll tell you what, young fellow, I did n't bring you up 
by hand to badger people's lives out- People are put 
in the Hulks because they murder and rob and forge 
and do all sorts of bad ; and they always begin by ask- 
mg questions. Now you get along to bed." 

— Mrs. Joe Gargery 



" Fashions are like human beings. They come in, nobody 
knows when, why, or how; and they go out, nobody 
knows when, why, or how. Everything is like life, 
in my opinion, if you look at it in that point of view." 

— Mr. Omer 



Msix 



" The people are frightfully civil and grotesquely extor- 
tionate. One man (with a house to let) told me that 
he loved the Duke of Wellington like a brother. The 
same gentleman wanted to hug me round the neck 
with one hand and pick my pocket with the other." 

— Letters 



Betsy Prig, try the cowcumbers. God bless you! 
Sairey, sez Mrs. Harris, sech is life. Vich likewise 
is the hend of all things." — Mrs. Gamp 



" We have left unmet people whom we ought to have 
met, and we have met the people whom we ought not 
to have met, and there seems to be no help in us." 
99m — C. D. 

_EJ — 

" In a commercial establishment where any gentleman 
may say, any Saturday evening, * Mrs. Todgers, this 
day week we part in consequence of the cheese,* 
it is not easy to preserve a pleasant understanding." 

— Mrs. Todgers 



" It is nothing to say that he had n*t a word to throw 
at a dog. He could n't have thrown a word at a mad 
dog. He might have offered him one gently, or a half 
a one, or a fragment of one — for he spoke as slowly 
as he walked ; but he would n't have been rude with 
him and he could n't have been quick with him for 
any earthly consideration." — Of Mr. Chillip 



~M 

" John Edward Nandy, sir, while there *s a ounce of wit- 
tie or drink of any sort in this present roof, you *re 
fully welcome to your share on it. While there 's a 
handful of fire, or a mouthful of bed in this present 
roof, you are fully welcome to a share on it. If so be 
as there should be nothing in this present roof, you 
should be as welcome to your share on it as if it was 
something much or little. And this is what I mean 
and so I don't deceive you and consequently which 
is to stand out is to entreat of you and therefore why 
not do it? " — Mr. Plornish 



That punctual servant of all work, the sun, had just 
risen, and begun to strike a light on the morning of 
the thirteenth of May, when Mr. Samuel Pickwick 
burst like another sun from his slumbers, threw open 
his chamber window, and looked out upon the world 
beneath. Goswell street was at his feet, Goswell street 
was on his right hand — as far as the eye could reach. 
Goswell street extended on his left; and the opposite 
side of Goswell street was over the way. * Such,* 
thought Mr. Pickwick, * are the narrow views of those 
philosophers who, content with examining the things 
that lie before them, look not to the truths which are 
hidden beyond. Cab ! * cried Mr. Pickwick, * Golden 
Cross.' " — From Pickwick Papers 



He cannot have too little to do with people who are too 
deep for him, and cannot be too careful of interference 




with matters he does not understand; the plain rule 
is to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing 
under-handed or mysterious, and never to put his foot 
where he cannot see the ground." 

— Mrs. Bagnet's advice 



-m 



Is she dead, Joe? ' 

*' * Why, you see, old chap, I would n*t go so far as 
to say that, for that 's a deal to say ; but she ain't — ' 

"'Living, Joe?' 

" ' That 's nigher where it is. She ain't living.' " 

Joe Gargery 



mmmmmmmmmmmMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 

" * Circumscribed, that 's it.' 

" * That ain't as good a word as circumwented, 
Sammy.' 

"'Think not?' 
" ' Nothin' like it.' 

" * But don't you think it means more? * 
" ' Well, p'raps it is a more tender word. Go on, 
Sammy.' " — The Wellers 



That, ladies and gentlemen,' said Mrs. Jarley, * is Jas- 
per Packlemerton of atrocious memory, who courted 
and married fourteen wives, and destroyed them all 
by tickling the soles of their feet when they were 
sleeping in the consciousness of innocence and virtue. 
On being brought to the scaffold and asked if he were 
sorry for what he had done, he replied yes, he was 
sorry for having let 'em off so easy, and hoped all 
Christian husbands would pardon him the offense. 
Let this be a warning to all young ladies to be par- 




ticular in the charactei of the gentlemen of their 
choice. Observe that his fingers are curled as if in 
the act of tickling, and that his face is represented 
with a wink, as he appeared when committing his 
barbarous murders/ " — Mrs. Jarley 

^M 

There was a Miss Podsnap, and this young rocking- 
horse was being trained in her mother's art of pranc- 
ing in a stately manner without ever getting on." 

— Of Miss Podsnap 



US! 



He (Mr. Pickwick) would not deny that he was influ- 
enced by human passions and human feelings, — 
(cheers) — possibly by human weaknesses — (loud 
cries of * No ! ') : but this he would say, that if ever 
the fire of self-importance broke out in his bosom, the 
desire to benefit the human race in preference, ef- 
fectually quenched it." — Mr. Pickwick 



-m 



Not quite in a good temper, Tattycoram? Take a little 
time — count five and twenty." — Mr. Meagles 

— Nj 

"One Saturday night a little thin old gen'lm'n comes 
into the shop in a great passion and says, * Are you 
the missis o' this 'ere shop?' * Yes, I am,' says she. 
* Well, ma'am,' says he, * then I've just looked in to 
say that me and my family ain't agoin' to be choked 
for nothin' ; and more than that, ma'am,' he says, * you 
will allow me to observe that as you don't use the 
primest parts of the meat in the manafacter of sas- 




sages, I think you 'd find beef come nearly as cheap 
as buttons/ * As buttons, sir ! * says she. * Buttons, 
ma'am,' says the little old gen'lm'n, unfolding a little 
bit of paper and showing twenty or thirty halves o' 
buttons. * Nice seasonin' for sassages is trousers* 
buttons, ma'am.' * They 're my husband's buttons,' 
cries the widder, beginnin' to think. * What ! ' 
screams the little old gen'lm'n an ' turning werry 
pale. * I see it all,' says the widder. * In a fit o' 
temporary insanity he rashly converted hisself into 
sassage.' And so he had, sir," said Mr. Weller, look- 
ing steadily into Mr. Pickwick's horror-stricken 
countenance. "The little old gen'lm'n rushed out of 
the shop in a wild state, and was never heard on 
arterwards." — Sam Weller 



" I was not sleeping, nor what a person would term cor- 
rectly dozing. I was more what a person would 
strictly call watching with my eyes closed." 

— Mrs. Tickit 

" Begging your pardon, sir, I would skorn the haction. 
The woices was wery loud, sir, and forced themselves 
upon my ear." — Mrs. Cluppins 



" Mr. Rugg 's a red-haired man and gets his hair cut. 
And as to the crown of his hat, it 's high. And as to 
the brim of his hat, it's narrow. And there's no 
more benevolence bubbling out of him than out of a 
ninepin." — Mr. Pancks 




" Tears never yet wound up a clock nor worked a steam 
engine." — Sam Weller 

" It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises 
the eyes and softens down the temper. So cry 
away ! " — Mr. Bumble 

" Here 's flesh ! Here 's firmness ! Here *s solidness ! 
Look at them tears, sir ; there 's oiliness ! " 

— Mr. Squeers 
"Are tears the dew-drops of the heart? J. M." 

— Julisa Mills 



* It 's a devil of a thing, gentlemen,' said Mr. Swivel- 
ler, * when relations fall out and disagree. If the 
wing of friendship should never moult a feather, the 
wing of relationship should never be clipped, but be 
always expanded and serene. Why should a grand- 
son and grandfather peg away at each other with 
mutual wiolence when all might be bliss and concord? 
Why not jine hands and forgit it?' 
" ' Hold your tongue,' said his friend." 

— Dick Swiveller 



He had proved that, by altering the received mode of 
punctuation, any one of Shakespeare's plays could be 
made quite different and the sense completely 
changed. It is needless to say, therefore, that he was 
a great critic and a very profound and most original 
thinker." —Mr. Curdle 




-m 



" A man must take the fat with the lean ; that 's what he 
must make his mind up to, in this life." 

— Mr. Omer 



May the present moment be the worst of our lives! I 
like this plan of sending 'em in with the peel on; 
there 's a charm in drawing a potato from its native 
element (if I may so express it) to which the rich 
and powerful are strangers." — Dick Swiveller 



You remember the night I first came here and found 
you floating your powerful mind in tea? There you 
sit, in the midst of your works — 
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain. 
Oh give you your lowly preparations again ; 
The birds, stuffed so sweetly, that could n't be ex- 
pected to come at your call. 
Give you these with sweet peace of mind, dearer 
than all. 

Be it ever so ghastly, all things considered, there 's 
no place like it ! " — Silas Wegg 




He appeared to conduct his business by looking across 
the street at the saddler, who seemed to transact his 
business by keeping his eye on the coachmaker, who 
appeared to get on in life by putting his hands in his 
pockets and contemplating the baker, who in his 




turn folded his arms and stared at the grocer, who 
stood at his door and yawned at the chemist." 

— From Great Expectations 



-m 



" She calls me cruel — me — me — who for her sake will 
become a demd, damp, moist, unpleasant bod^! Can 
I live to be mistrusted? Have I cut my heart into a 
demd extraordinary number of little pieces and given 
them all, one after another, to the same little engross- 
ing demnition captivator? And can I be suspected by 
her? Demmit, no, I can't." — Mr. Mantalini 



June 



I 



WOULD rather have the affectionate regard of my 
fellow-men than I would have heaps and mines of 
gold. — Charles Dickens in America 



June 



And when Sunday came how differently the day was 
spent from any way in which he had ever spent 
it yet, and how happily, too. There was the little 
church in the morning, with the green leaves flut- 
tering at the windows: the birds singing without, 
and the sweet smelling air stealing in at the low 
porch and filling the homely building with its fra- 
grance. The poor people were so neat and clean, and 
knelt so reverently in prayer, that it seemed 
a pleasure, not a tedious duty, their assembling there 
together." — From Oliver Twist 



Don Bolaro Fizzgig — Grandee — only daughter — 
Donna Christina — splendid creature — loved me to 
distraction — jealous father — high-souled daughter 
— handsome Englishman — Donna Christina in de- 
spair — prussic acid — stomach-pump in my port- 
manteau — operation performed — old Bolaro in ec- 
stasies — consent to our union — join hands and flood 
of tears." — Mr. Jingle 



If ever you gets to up'ards o' fifty and feels disposed 
to go a-marryin' anybody — no matter who — just 
you shut yourself in a room, if you 've got one, and 
pison yourself offhand. Pison yourself, Samivel, and 
you '11 be glad on it arterwards." — Mr. Weller, Sr. 



Jftane 



"'Licence, sir, licence?' 'What's that?' 'Marriage 
licence.' * Dash my weskit, I never thought of 
that ! ' * I think you wants one, sir.' ' No, damme, 
I 'm too old, and besides I 'm a many sizes too large.' 
* Not a bit on it, sir. We married a gentleman twice 
your size last Monday.' * Did you, though?' 'To 
be sure. You 're a babby to him, sir. This way, sir.' " 

— Mr. Weller, Sr. 



She is come ! ' said the old gentleman, laying his hand 
upon his heart. ' Cormoran and Blunderbore ! She 
is come! All the wealth I have is hers if she will 
take me for her slave. Where are grace, beauty and 
blandishments like those? In the Empress of Mad- 
agascar? No. In the Queen of Diamonds? No. 
In Mrs. Rowland, who every morning bathes in 
Kalydor for nothing? No. Melt all these down into 
one, with the three Graces, the nine Muses, and 
fourteen biscuit-bakers' daughters from Oxford 
Street, and make a woman half as lovely. Pho! I 
defy you.'" — Mrs. Nickleby's Suitor 



" ' When a man says he is willin',' said Mr. Barkis, ' it 's 
as much as to say that man 's awaitin' for a answer.' " 

— Mr. Barkis 



'And a very snug little business you have, no doubt? ' 
said Mr. Winkle, knowingly. 

" ' Very,' replied Bob Sawyer. ' So snug, that at 



the end of a few years you might put all the profits 
in a wine glass, and cover 'em over with a gooseberry 
leaf. Hardly anything real in the shop but the 
leeches, and they are second-hand.' " 

— Bob Sawyer 



" * Come ! ' said Tim, * let 's be a comfortable couple. 
We shall live in the old house here, where I have 
been for four and forty year; we shall go to the old 
church, where I 've been every Sunday morning, all 
through that time; we shall have all my old friends 
about us — Dick, the archway, the pump, the flower- 
pots, and Mrs. Frank's children, and Mr. Nickleby's 
children, that we shall seem like grandfather and 
grandmother to. Let 's be a comfortable couple, and 
take care of each other! And if we should get deaf 
or lame, or blind or bed-ridden, how glad we shall 
be that we have somebody we are fond of always to 
talk to and sit with ! Let 's be a comfortable couple. 
Now, do, my dear ! ' " 

— Tim Linkinwater's proposal 



— iaa 



" She fainted away stone dead when Mr. Sanders asked 
her to name the day, and believed that everybody as 
called herself a lady would do the same under similar 
circumstances." — Mrs. Cluppins 



-IS 



We were all in all to one another it was the morning 
of life it was bliss it was frenzy it was everything 



else of that sort in the highest degree when rent 
asunder we turned to stone in which capacity Arthur 
went to China and I became the statue bride of Mr. 
F." — Flora Pinching 



-ID 



When I made my proposal she did me the honor to be 
so over-shadowed with a species of Awe as to be able 
to articulate only the two words ' O, thou ! ' meaning 
myself; — and though encouraged to proceed, she 
never did proceed a word further." — Mr. Sapsea 



-Ei 



" Papa would remark to me that a family of whales must 
not ally itself with sprats. ... I well remem- 
ber mamma's clasping her hands and exclaiming, 
* This will end in a little man ! ' She afterward went 
so far as to predict that it would be a little man with 
a mind below the average, but that was in what I 
may denominate a paroxysm of maternal disappoint- 
ment. Within a month I first saw R. W., my hus- 
band. Within a year, I married him. It is natural 
for the mind to recall these dark coincidences on the 
present day." ■— Mrs. Wilfer 

" * I was considered tall ; perhaps I was. Papa and 
mamma were unquestionably tall. I have rarely seen 
a finer woman than my mother; never than my 
father.' 

" * Whatever grandpapa was, he was n't female.' 
" * Your grandpapa was what I describe him to have 



jMne 



been and would have struck any of his grandchildren 
to the earth who presumed to question it.' " 

— Mrs. Wilfer and Lavinia 



m 



*A young gentleman may be over-careful of himself, or 
he may be under-careful of himself. He may brush 
his hair too regular, or too unregular. He may wear 
his boots much too large for him, or much too small. 
That is according as the young gentleman has his 
original character formed. But let him go to which 
extreme he may, sir, there 's a young lady in both of 
'em." — Mrs. Crupp 



-11 



" Samivel, Samivel ! I did n*t think you 'd 'a done it ! 
Arter the warning you Ve had o' your father's wici- 
ous perpensities ; arter all I 've said to you on this 
here wery subject; arter actiwally seein' and bein' 
in the company o' your own mother-in-law, which 
I 'd 'a thought was a moral lesson as no man could 
never have forgotten to his dying day ! " 
y^a —Mr. Weller, Sr. 

"Hello! Here's a church! Let's go in! Hello! Here's 
a pair of gloves ! Let 's put 'em on ! Hello ! Here 's 
Miss Skiffkins ! Let 's have a wedding ! " 

— Mr. Wemmick 



Beside that cottage door, Mr. Boffin, 

A girl was on her knees. 
She held aloft a snowy scarf, sir. 
Which (my eldest brother noticed) fluttered in the 
breeze ; 



JFumnie 



She breathed a prayer for him, Mr. Boffin, 

A prayer he could not hear; 
And my eldest brother leaned upon his sword, Mr. 
Boffin, 

And wiped away a tear." — Silas Wegg 






O Calf, Calf! O Baal, Baal! To barter away that pre- 
cious jewel, self-esteem, and cringe to any mortal 
creature — for eighteen shillings a week ! " 

— Mr. Pecksniff 



-m 



" * It theemth to prethent two thingth to a perthon, don't 
it, thquire? One, that there ith a love in the world, 
not at all thelf-interetht after all, but thomething 
very different : t'other, that it hath a way of ith own 
of calculating of not calculating, whith thomehow 
or another ith at leath ath hard to give a name to, ath 
the wayth of the dogth ith ! " — Mr. Sleary 



I 'm an old traveler and all foreign languages and cus- 
toms are alike to me — I never understand anything 
about any of 'em. Therefore I can't be put to any in- 

— Mr. Meagles 



m^ 



" Several American friends at that inn all called Mont 
Blanc Mount Blank, except one good-natured gentle- 
man, of a very sociable nature, who became on such 
intimate terms with it that he spoke of it familiarly 
as * Blank' — observing at breakfast, * Blank looks 
pretty tall this morning.' " — Holly Tree Inn 




"Once I passed a fortnight at an inn in the north of Eng- 
land where I was haunted by the ghost of a tremen- 
dous pie. It was a Yorkshire pie, like a fort, an 
abandoned fort, with nothing in it. It was a point of 
ceremony at every meal to put that pie on the table. 
After some days I tried to hint, in several delicate 
ways, that I considered the pie done with — as, for 
example, by emptying fag-ends of glasses of wine into 
it; putting cheese-plates and spoons into it, as into a 
basket. But always in vain, the pie being invariably 
cleaned out again and brought up as before." 

—The Same 



" I was taken by quick association to the anglers' inns 
of England (I have assisted at innumerable feats of 
angling by lying at the bottom of the boat whole 
summer days, doing nothing with the greatest per- 
severance; which I have generally found to be as 
effectual towards the taking of fish as the finest tackle 
and the utmost science) " — The Same 



i! 



and to the pleasant, white, clean, flower-pot-decorated 
bedrooms of those inns, overlooking the river, and 
the green ait, and the church spire, and the country 
bridge; and to the peerless Emma with the bright 
eyes and the pretty smile, who waited, God bless 
her, with a natural grace that would have converted 
Bluebeard." —The Same 




" Then I came to the inns of Paris, with the pretty apart- 
ment of four pieces up one hundred and seventy-five 
waxed stairs, the privilege of ringing the bell all day 
long without influencing anybody's mind or body 
but our own, and the not-too-much-for-dinner con- 
sidering the price." — The Same 

" Next, to the provincial inns of France, with the great 
church tower rising above the church courtyard, the 
horse-bells jingling merrily up and down the street 
beyond, and the clocks of all descriptions in all the 
rooms, which are never right unless taken at the 
precise minute when by getting exactly twelve 
hours too fast or too slow, they unintentionally be- 
come so." — The Same 



Next I put up at the restless inns upon the Rhine, 
where your going to bed, no matter at what hour, 
appears to be the tocsin for everybody else's getting 
up; and where in the table-d' bote room at the end 
of the long table one knot of stoutish men rvill re- 
main all night clinking glasses and singing about the 
river that flows and the grape that grows, and Rhine 
wine that beguiles, and Rhine woman that smiles, 
and hi drink, drink, my friend, and ho drink, drink, 
my brother, and all the rest of it." — The Same 



M 



I put out to sea for the inns of America, with their 
four hundred beds apiece, and their eight or nine 




hundred ladies and gentlemen at dinner every day. 
Again I found, as to my individual way o£ thinking, 
that the greater, more gorgeous, and the more dol- 
larous the establishment was, the less desirable it 
was. Nevertheless I drank in all good-will to my 
friend the General and my friends the Majors, Col- 
onels, and civilians all; full well knowing that what- 
ever little motes my beamy eyes may have descried 
in theirs, they belong to a kind, generous, large- 
hearted people and a great people." — The Same 



" Come to England ! Our oysters are small, I know ; 
they are said by Americans to be coppery; but our 
hearts are of the largest size. We are thought to 
excel in shrimps, to be far from despicable in point 
of lobsters, and in periwinkles challenge the world." 

— Letters 



-m 



" I can't be denounced as heartless by the whole society 
of China without setting myself right when I have 
the opportunity of doing so and you must be aware 
that there was * Paul and Virginia ' which had to 
be returned and was returned without note or com- 
ment not that I mean to say you could have written 
to me watched as I was but if it had only come back 
with a red wafer on the corner I should have known 
it meant Come to Pekin, Nankeen and What 's-the- 
third-place barefoot." — Flora Finching 



July 



t au t nui ini ni iiii n i 



I WOULD beg to give you as a toast America and 
England — may they never have any division but 
the Atlantic between them. 

— Charles Dickens: Address at Boston, 1842 



" Your papa used to say that roast pigs always put 
him in mind of very young babies, only the pigs had 
much fairer complexions.'* — Mrs. Nickleby 

" Allow me, sir, the honor of grasping your hand. Per- 
mit me, sir, to shake it." — Mr. Leo Hunter 



Rendering unto all their just doo and maintaining 
equal justice between man and man, my father were 
that good in his hart." — Joe Gargery 



" What is the odds so long as the fire of the soul is 
kindled at the taper of conwiviality and the wing of 
friendship never moults a feather? " 
" Yet loved I as man never loved 
That hadn't wooden legs. 
And my heart, my heart is breaking 
For the love of Sophie Cheggs." 

— Dick Swiveller 



" In Freedom's name, sir, I advert with indignation and 
disgust, to that accursed animal, with gore-stained 
whiskers, whose rampant cruelty and fiery lust have 
ever been a scourge, a torment to the world. The 
naked visitors to Crusoe's island, sir ; the flying wives 
of Peter Wilkins; the fruit-smeared children of the 
tangle bush; nay, even the men of large stature, an- 
ciently bred in the mining district of Cornwall, alike 



Jw|y 



bear witness to its savage nature. Where, sir, are 
the Cormorans, the Blunderbores, the great Fee-fo- 
fums, named in History? All, all exterminated by 
its destroying hand! 

" I allude, sir, to the British Lion." 

— General Choke 



Lord love you, sir, they're so fond of liberty in this 
part of the globe, that they buy her and sell her and 
carry her to market with 'em. They Ve such a pas- 
sion for liberty that they can't help taking liberties 
with her." 

— Mark Tapley 



" STRANGER 

Respect the tomb of 

JOHN CHIVERY, JUNIOR, 

Who died at an advanced age. 

Not necessary to mention. 

He encountered his rival in a distressed state 

and felt inclined 

To have a round with him; 

But for the sake of the loved one, 

Conquered those feelings of bitterness and became 

MAGNANIMOUS." 

— John Chivery 



* Away with melancholy 

Nor doleful human folly. 
On life and human folly, 

But merrily, merrily sing, Fa-la." 

— Eugene Wrayburn 



Jw|y 



" My young friend, you are to us a pearl, you are to us a 
diamond, you are to us a gem, you are to us a jewel. 
And why, my young friend? My young friend, it is 
because you know nothing that you are to us a gem 
and a jewel. For what are you, my young friend? 
Are you a beast of the field? No. A bird of the air? 
No. A fish of the sea or river? No. You are a hu- 
man boy, my young friend, a human boy. Oh, glori- 
ous, to be a human boy! And why glorious, my 
young friend? " — Mr. Chadband 



-W 



I don't know why it is, but a fine summer day like this, 
with the birds singing in every direction, always puts 
me in mind of roast pig, with sage and onion sauce, 
and made gravy." — Mrs. Nickleby 



-m 



All he asked of society was to let him live. That 
was n't much. He was a mere child in the world, but 
he did n't cry for the moon. He said to the world, 
* Go your several ways in peace ! Wear red coats, 
blue coats, lawn sleeves, put pens behind your ears, 
wear aprons, go after glory, holiness, commerce, any 
object you prefer; — only let Harold Skimpole live." 

— Of Harold Skimpole 

"Where's the use of a division between you and me? 
We are two halves of a pair of scissors, when apart, 
Pecksniff; but together we are something, eh? " 

— Anthony Chuzzlewit 



_!3_ 

" The gout is a complaint as comes from too much ease 
and comfort. If ever you 're attacked with gout, sir, 
just you marry a widder as has got a good loud woice 
and a decent notion o* usin* it, and you '11 never have 
the gout again." — Mr. Weller, Sr. 



Widders, Sammy, widders are *ceptions to every rule. 
I have heered how many ord 'nary women one wid- 
der 's equal to in point o' comin' over you. I think 
it 's five and twenty, but I don't rightly know vether 
it ain't more." — The Same 



-fO 



I dreamed that somebody was dead and was greatly 
overcome when the news was broken to me by a gen- 
tleman in a cocked hat, top boots and a sheet. 
Nothing else. * Good God!' I said, 'Is he dead? 
What did he die of? ' The gentleman burst into a 
flood of tears and said in a voice broken by emotion, 
* He christened his youngest child, sir, with a toast- 
ing-fork.' " — Letters 



"Wot I have took from Betsy Prig this blessed night 
no mortial creetur knows! If she had abuged me, 
bein' in liquor, which I thought I smelt her wen 
she come, but could not so believe, not bein* used 
myself, I could have bore it with a thankful 'art. But 
the words she spoke of Mrs. Harris, lambs could not 
forgive. No, Betsy ! Nor worms forget ! " 

— Mrs. Gamp 



<Jn^ 



"Thquire, thake handth, firtht and latht! Don't be 
croth with uth poor vagabondth. People mutht be 
amuthed. They can't be alwayth a-learning, nor yet 
they can't be alwayth a-working, they an't made for 
it. You mutht have uth, thquire. Do the withe 
thing and kind thing too, and make the bethe of uth, 
not the wortht ! " — Mr. Sleary 



m 



" It was a maxim of Captain Swosser's, speaking in his 
figurative naval manner, that when you make pitch 
hot you can not make it too hot, and if you only have 
to swab a plank, you should swab it as if Davy Jones 
were after you." — Mrs. Badger 



" My dear Macready : You once — once only — gave the 
world assurance of a waistcoat. It was a remarkable 
and precious waistcoat, wherein certain broad stripes 
of blue or purple disported themselves as by a com- 
bination of circumstances too happy to occur again. 
I have seen it on your manly chest in private life. 
Mr. Macready, sir, are you a father? If so, lend me 
that waistcoat for five minutes." — Letters 



She is a mother to them boys and a blessing and a com- 
fort and a joy to all them as knows her. One of the 
boys, gorging hisself with vittles and then turning 
ill — that 's their way — got a abscess on him last 



July 



week. To see how she operated on him with a pen- 
knife ! O Lor' ! " — Mr. Squeers 



-m- 



A man who has lost forty-seven pound ten in one morn- 
ing by his honesty is a man to be envied. If it had 
been eighty pounds, the luxuriousness of feeling 
would have been increased." — Sampson Brass 



-^ 



"Presiding over an establishment like this makes sad 
havoc with the features. The gravy alone is enough 
to add twenty years to one's age. The anxiety of that 
one item keeps the mind continually on the stretch. 
There is no such passion in human nature as the 
passion for gravy among commercial gentlemen.'* 
|0^ — Mrs. Todgers 

" My friends, we are now in the mansions of the rich and 
great. Why are we now in the mansions of the rich 
and great, my friends? Is it because we are invited? 
Because we are bidden to rejoice with them? Be- 
cause we are bidden to play the lute with them? Be- 
cause we are bidden to dance with them? No. Then 
why are we here, my friends? " — Mr. Chadband 



-m 



Our host was a chair-maker and the chairs assigned to 
us were mere frames, altogether without bottoms, so 
that we passed the evening on perches. Nor was 
this the absurdest consequence; for when we unbent 
at supper and any one of us gave way to laughter, he 
forgot the peculiarity of his position, and instantly 



Jnt^ 



disappeared. I was taken out of my frame five times 
by the taper's light during the eggs and bacon." 

— Holly Tree Inn 



" Whereabout in the bonnet and drapery announced by 
her name any fragment of the real woman may be 
concealed, is perhaps known to her maid; but you 
could easily buy all you see of her. You may scalp 
her, and peel her and make two Lady Tiffins out of 
her, and yet not penetrate to the genuine article." 

— Of Lady Tiffins 



-m 



" Grief never mended no broken bones, and, as good 
people 's very scarce, what I says is, make the most 
on *em." — Sketches by Boz 



" ETHELINDA 

reverential wife of 

MR. THOMAS SAPSEA, 

Auctioneer, Valuer, Estate Agent, Etc. 

of this city 

Whose Knowledge of the World 

though somewhat extensive 

Never brought him acquainted with 

a Spirit 

More Capable of 

LOOKING UP TO HIM. 

Stranger, pause 

and ask thyself the question: 

Canst thou do likewise? 

If not 

With a blush retire." — Mr. Sapsea 



J«|y 



_^ 



The days of that inestimable Queen Bess, which were 
so extremely golden! Dear creature! She was all 
heart! And that charming father of hers — I hope 
you dote on Harry the Eighth? So bluff! So burly! 
So truly English." — Mrs. Skewton 



As a biped I object to being constantly referred to in- 
sects and four-footed creatures — being required to 
model my proceedings according to the proceedings 
of the bee, the dog, the spider or the camel. I fully 
admit, for instance, that the camel is an excessively 
temperate person; but he has several stomachs to 
entertain himself with and I have only one." 

— Eugene Wrayburn 



The sensation of having a sweet young presence m the 
place, that whitewashes it, paints it, papers it, deco- 
rates it with gilding, and makes it glorious, ah me! 
ah me ! " — Mr. Grewgious 



"Alas there was a time dear Arthur that is to say de- 
cidedly not dear nor Arthur neither but you under- 
stand me when one bright idea gilded the what's- 
his-name horizon of et cetera but it is darkly clouded 
now and all is over." — Flora Pinching 



-m 



Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every 
man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of 
which all men have some." — CD. 



Ajift^st 



ENIUS — In its legitimate use uniting wit with 
purity; instructing the high in their duties to the 
low; and by improving the morals, elevating the 
social condition of man. 

— President Josiah Quincy of Harvard : 
Boston Dinner to Dickens, 1842 



August 



A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater 
rarity in southern France then than at any other 
time, before or since. Everything in Marseilles, and 
about Marseilles, had stared at the fervid sky, and 
been stared at in return, until a staring habit had 
become universal there. Strangers were stared out 
of countenance by staring white houses, staring white 
walls, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid 
road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt 
away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring 
and glaring were the vines drooping under their load 
of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as 
the hot air barely moved their faint leaves." 

— From Little Dorrit 



There is in the Englishman a combination of qualities, 
a moderation, an independence, a responsibility, a 
repose, combined with an absence of everything cal- 
culated to bring a blush to the cheek of the young 
person, which one would seek in vain among the 
nations of the earth." — Mr. Podsnap 



" * Indeed, it 's very kind of you, but I 'm afraid I dont 
talk. Ma talks.' It was plainly to be seen, for ma 
was talking then at her usual canter, with arched 
head and mane, opened eyes and nostrils. 

"* Music?' 

" * I have n*t the nerve to play, even if I could. Ma 



^SM^t 



plays.* At exactly the same canter and with the same 
appearance of doing something, ma did occasionally 
take a rock upon the instrument." — Miss Podsnap 



I think you said Rooshian Empire, sir?* 

" * It is Rooshian, ain't it, Wegg? ' 

" * No, sir ; Roman, Roman.' 

"* What's the difference, Wegg?' 

"*The difference, sir? There you place me in a 
difficulty, sir. Suffice it to observe, that the dif- 
ference is best postponed to some other occasion 
when Mrs. Boffin does not honor us with her com- 
pany. In Mrs. Boffin's presence we had better drop 
it.' " — Silas Wegg 



" Giving consent when asked, and offering when un- 
asked, is quite two things. I may not have objec- 
tions to a young man's keeping company with me, 
and when he puts the question may say * yes ; ' but 
that 's not saying, * Would you be so kind as like 
me? ' " — Susan Nipper 



If ever I wanted anj^ing of my father, I always asked 
for it in a werry 'spectful and obliging manner. If 
he did n't give it to me, I took it, for fear I should 
be led to do anything wrong through not having it." 

— Sam Weller 



The heavenly bodies is philosophy, and the earthly bod- 
ies is philosophy. If there 's a screw loose in a heav- 



^M^tmst 




enly body, that *s philosophy ; and if there 's a screw 
loose in a earthly body, that 's philosophy, too ; or it 
may be that there 's a little metaphysics in it but not 
often. Philosophy 's the chap for me." 

•—Mr. Squcers 

I shall wear this emblem of woman's perfidy in remem- 
brance of her with whom I shall never again thread 
the windings of the mazy; whom I shall nevermore 
pledge in the rosy; who, during the short remainder 
of my existence, will murder the balmy." 

— Dick Swivellcr 



il 



I have knowed that sweetest and best of women ever 
since afore her First, which Mr. Harris, who was 
dreadful timid, went and stopped his ears in a empty 
dog kennel, and never took his hands away or come 
out once till he was showed the baby, wen, bein' took 
with fits, the doctor collared him and laid him on his 
back on the airy stones, and she was told, to ease her 
mind, his 'owls was organs." — Mrs. Gamp 



m 



" There were men there who made such speeches and ex- 
pressed such sentiments as any moderately intelligent 
dustman would have blushed in his cindery bloom to 
have thought of. Sleek, slobbering, bow-paunched, 
overfed, apoplectic, snorting cattle, and the auditory 
leaping up in their delight ! " — Letters 



The present may be a very good inn according to the 
London opinions and I believe its character do stand 



A^i^^^ 



it; but I wouldn't keep a pig in it, myself — not in 
the case that I wished him to fatten wholesome and 
to eat with a meller flavor on him." — Joe Gargery 



-m 



" ' Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little 
long.* How true that is ! — after dinner ! * " 

— Dick Swiveller 

" We eats our biled mutton without capers and don't care 
for horse-radish wen we gets beef." 

— Sam Weller 
*' Half a crown in the bill, if you look at the waiter." 

— The Same 



"What do you mean by this, Mr. Sawyer? Ain't it 
enough to be swindled out of one's rent, and money 
lent out of pocket besides, and abused and insulted 
by your friends that dares to call themselves men; 
without having the house turned out of window, and 
noise enough made to bring the fire-engines here at 
two o'clock in the morning? Turn them wretches 
away." — Mrs. Raddle 



He did n't appear like the same man ; then he was all 
milk and honey; now he was all starch and vinegar. 
But men are so different at different times." 

— Of Mr. Gregsbury 



I will never be naughty again. I beg its little pardon. 
It 's all up with the handsome friend. He has gone to 



the demnition bowwows. It will have pity? It will 
not scratch and claw but pet and comfort? Oh, dem- 

"^^^•" —Mr. Mantalini 



-H 



' There was a young lady with her, comparatively 
stricken in years — almost twenty, I should say. 
Her name was Miss Mills. I learned that Miss Mills 
had had her trials in the course of a checkered exist- 
ence; and that to these, perhaps, I might refer that 
wise benignity of manner which I had already 
noticed. I found that Miss Mills, having been un- 
happy in a misplaced affection, and being understood 
to have retired from the world on her awful stock of 
experience, still took a calm interest in the un- 
blighted hopes and loves of youth." 

— David Copperfield 



* I courted her under singular circumstances. I won 
my wife through a rash vow. Thus: I saw her; I 
loved her ; I proposed ; she refused me. * You love 
another?' 'Spare my blushes.' *I know him.' 
* You do.' * Very good ; if he remains here I'll skin 
him.' I said I had pledged my word as a gentleman 
to skin him. My character was at stake. I had no 
alternative. As an officer in his Majesty's service, 
I was bound to skin him. I regretted the necessity, 
but it must be done. He was open to conviction. He 
saw that the rules of the service were imperative. 
He fled. I married her. Here 's the coach. That 's 

^^^^^^^■" -Mr. Dowler 



^gmit 



" The air is like that of a pre- Adamite ironing-day in full 
blast." — Letters 

"On the Rampage, and off the Rampage: — such is 
life ! " — Joe Gargery 

" 'In case anything turned up/ which was his favored 
expression." — Of Mr. Micawber 



-m 



" I ain't what I could wish myself to be ; I am far from 
it. I know what I am. My troubles has made me 
contrary. I wish I did n't feel 'em, but I do. I make 
the house uncomfortable." — Mrs. Gummidge 



-m 



" This is a most wretched sort of affair, this world is ! 
Somebody 's always dying, or going and doing some- 
thing uncomfortable in it. I 'm sure I never should 
have looked forward so much to coming into my 
property, if I had known this." — Mr. Toots 



-m 



" My dear Sir: Since my hall clock was sent to your es- 
tablishment to be cleaned, it has gone perfectly well, 
but has struck the hours with great reluctance, and 
after enduring internal agonies of the most distress- 
ing nature, it has now ceased striking altogether, 
Though a happy release for the clock, this is not con- 
venient for the household. If you can send down any 
confidential person with whom the clock can confer, 
I think it may have something on its works that it 
would be glad to make a clean breast of." 

— Letters 




g,mit 



— p 



(( < 



Mr. Vinkel stops at home now,' said Sam. * He 's 
married.' * Married ! ' exclaimed Pott, with frightful 
vehemence. He stopped short, smiled darkly, and 
added, in a low vindictive tone, * It serves him 
right ! ' " — From Pickwick Papers 



Where is the miserable sinner? ' 

" ' My friend,* sez I, * did you apply that 'ere ob- 
serwation to me?' 

" Stead o' begging my pardon as any gentleman 
would 'a done, he got more abusive than ever ; called 
me a wessel, Sammy, — a wessel of wrath, — and all 
sorts of names." — Mr. Weller, Sr. 



-m 



" It 's better we should begin by being confidential about 
our mutual friend . . . than become through 
mere formalities not you but me like the Spartan boy 
with the fox biting him, which I hope you'll excuse 
my bringing up for of all tiresome boys that will go 
tumbling into every sort of company that boy 's the 
tiresomest." — Flora Finching 



I was never in no other trouble at all, sir, except not 
knowing nothink and starwation." — ^Jo 



" Peace be with us ! My friends, why with us? Because 
it can not be against us; because it must be for us; 




because it is not hardening, because it is softening; 
because it does not make war like the hawk, but 
comes home unto us hke the dove. Therefore, my 
friends, peace be with us ! " — Mr. Chadband 



-m 



Miss Julia Mills has read the whole collection of these 
books. She has left marginal notes on the pages, as, 
* Is not this truly touching? J. M.' 'How thrilling! 
J. M.' * Entranced here by magician's potent spell, 
J. M.* *Are tears the dew-drops of the heart? 
J. M.'" —From David Copperfield 



" Hope is a buoy, for which you overhaul your Little 
Warbler, sentimental diwision; but Lord, my lad, 
like any other buoy, it only floats — it can't be steered 
nowhere. Along with the figurehead of Hope there 's 
a anchor ; but what 's the good of a anchor if I can't 
find no bottom to let it go in? " — Captain Cuttle 



" I will not denige that I am worrited and wexed this 
day, and with good region. God forbid ! " 

— Mrs. Gamp 
**The still, small voice, Christopher, is a-singing comic 
songs within me, and all is happiness and joy." 
|JfJ<i — Sampson Brass 

** * A fine old gentleman ! ' repeated Jonas, referring to 
his father, and giving the crown of his hat an angry 
knock. ' Ah ! it 's time he was thinking of being 
drawn out a little finer, too. Why, he 's eighty ! 



4Mg)tl31it 




And, ecod, now he 's gone so far without giving in, I 
don't see much to prevent his being ninety; no, nor 
even a hundred. Why, a man with any feeUng ought 
to be ashamed of being eighty — let alone more. 
Where 's his religion, I should like to know, when he 
goes flying in the face of the Bible, like that! Three- 
score and ten 's the mark, and no man with a con- 
science, and a proper sense of what 's expected of 
him, has any business to live longer.' " 

— Jonas Chuzzlewit 



_m 

" It's creditable to keep up one's spirits here. Virtue 's 
its own reward; so 's jollity." -Mark Tapley 

" In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile." 

— Christmas Carols 

" She wanted but a pair of wings to make her a little 
syrup." -Mrs. Todgers 



«»052SSJ? 



H 



E LIVES and will live by virtue of his tenderness 
and genial manliness, his firm grasp of charity, his 
all-pervading humor and his sympathy with 
humanity. — The Yorkshire Post 



Se 



ep 



"I never heard, mind you, nor read of in story books, 
nor see in picters, any angel in tights and gaiters — 
not even in spectacles, as I remember, though that 
may ha' been done for anythin' I know to the con- 
trairey — but mark my vords, Job Trotter, he 's a 
reg'lar thorough-bred angel for all that; and let me 
see the man as wentures to tell me he knows a better 
vun." — Sam Weller's tribute to Mr. Pickwick 



" Dr. Blimber's establishment was a great hot-house in 
which there was a forcing-apparatus incessantly at 
work. All the boys blew before their time. Mental 
green peas were produced at Christmas, and intel- 
lectual asparagus the year round. Mathematical 
goose-berries (very sour ones, too) were common at 
untimely seasons, from mere sprouts of bushes." 

— From Dombey and Son 



-li 



" I took a good deal o' pains with his eddication, sir ; let 
him run in the streets when he was wery young and 
shift for hisself. That's the way to make a boy 
sharp." — Mr. Weller, Sr. 



-Q 



** There was no light nonsense about Miss Blimber. She 
kept her hair short and crisp and wore spectacles. 
She was dry and sandy with working in the graves 
of deceased languages. None of your live languages 




pteiii(iilb©p 



for Miss Blimber. They must be dead — stone dead 
— and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a ghoul." 

— From Dombey and Son 



We have here among us, my friends, a brother and a 
boy. Devoid of parents, devoid of relations, devoid 
of flocks and herds, devoid of gold and silver and pre- 
cious stones." — Mr. Chadband 



" It 's our custom, sometimes, to tell sitters what part we 
(portrait-painters) are upon, in order that if there 's 
any particular expression they want introduced they 
may throw it in, at the time, you know." 

— Miss La Creevy 



" Poor Traddles was always being caned. After laying 
his head on the desk for a little while, he would cheer 
up somehow, begin to laugh again, and draw skeletons 
all over his slate. I used to wonder what comfort 
he found in skeletons and for a long time looked upon 
him as a sort of hermit who reminded himself by 
those symbols of mortality that caning could n't last 
forever." — From David Copperfield 



" Oh, yes, I have, I have my faults, no man knows his 
faults better than I know mine. But I 'm not meek. 
My worst enemies — every man has his enemies, sir, 
and I have mine — never accused me of being meek- 
And I tell you what, sir, if I hadn't more of these 
qualities that commonly endear man to man, than 



our articled clerk has, I'd steal a Cheshire cheese, 
tie it round my neck, and drown myself. I 'd die 
degraded, as I have lived. I would, upon my honor." 

— Mr. Chuckster 



-k^ 



* Have you seen the literary articles which appeared 
in the Eatanswill Gazette?' asked Mr. Pott. * They 
appeared in the form of a copious review of a work 
on Chinese metaphysics, sir.' * An abstruse subject, 
I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick. * He crammed 
for it,' said Mr. Pott, * reading up the subject at my 
desire, in the Encyclopedia Britannica.' * Indeed,' 
said Mr. Pickwick ; * I was not aware that that valu- 
able work contained any information respecting 
Chinese metaphysics.' *He read, sir,' rejoined Pott, 
laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's knee, and looking 
around with a smile of intellectual superiority ; * He 
read for metaphysics under the letter M, and for 
China under the letter C; and combined his infor- 

— Mr. Pott 



-M 



Remorse and misery — sudden disappearance — talk of 
the whole city — search made everywhere — without 
success — public fountain in the great square sud- 
denly ceased playing — weeks elapsed — still a stop- 
page — workmen employed to clean it — water drawn 
off — father-in-law discovered sticking head-first in 
the main pipe — full confession in his right boot — 
took him out and fountain played again as well as 

^^^^•" —Alfred Jingle 




ptesife 



When I listened that morning, I listened with had- 
miration amounting to hawe. I thought to myself, 
here 's a man with a wooden leg — a literary man with 
a wooden leg, and all print is open to him.' 

" * I believe you could n't show me the piece of 
English print that I wouldn't be equal to collaring 
and throwing.' 

"*On the spot?* 

" * On the spot.' 

" * I knowed it. Then consider this : here am I, a 
man without a wooden leg, yet all print is shut to 
me.' " — Mr. Boffin and Silas Wegg 



" Walk fast, my lad, and walk the same all the days of 
your life. Overhaul the Catechism for that advice 
and keep it." — Captain Cuttle 



v^f^^^ 



His fits of dozing were sudden and short and profound. 
When the first of these slumberings seized him Mrs. 
General looked almost amazed; but on each recur- 
rence of the symptoms, she told her polite beads — 
Papa, Potatoes, Poultry, Prunes and Prisms — and by 
dint of going through that performance very slowly, 
finished her rosary at the same time he started from 
his sleep." — Of Mrs. General 



-l£I 



" He 's a leech in his dispositions, a screw and a wice in 
his actions, a snake in his twistings, and a lobster in 
his claws." — Of Grandfather Smallweed 



" He has the constitution of a rhinoceros, the digestion of 
an ostrich, and the concentration of an oyster." 

— From Little Dorrit 



Mec9 



A horse is a quadruped, and quadruped is Latin for 
beast, as everybody that 's gone through the grammar 
knows, or else where 's the use of grammars? As 
you 're perfect in that, go and look after my horse, and 
rub him down well or 1 11 rub you down. The rest 
of the class go and draw water up till somebody tells 
you to leave off, for it *s washing-day tomorrow." 

— Mr. Squeers 



-B3 



I am a particularly angular man. I feel on these prem- 
ises as if I was a bear — with the cramp — in a 
youthful cotillion." — Mr. Grewgious 

I may be a camel, but I am not a dromedary ! " 

— Susan Nipper 

If you 're an eel, conduct yourself like one. If you 're a 
man, control your limbs, sir ! " — Of Uriah Heep 

He 's tough, ma'am, tough is J. B. — Tough and Je-vil- 
ish sly." — Major Bagstock 



■■" UA' 



" I had hope and youth. I believe, beauty. It matters 
very little now. Neither of them served nor saved me. 
I have the honor to appear at court regularly. With 
my documents. I expect a judgment. Shortly. On 
the Day of Judgment. This is a good omen for you. 
Pray accept my blessing." — Miss Flite 



m 



' Dinner is on the table ! ' Thus the melancholy re- 
tainer, as who should say, * Come down and be poi- 
soned, ye unhappy children of men ! ' " 

— Veneering's Butler 

Does my eyes deceive me, or is that object up there 
a — a — a — pie P It can't be a pie ! " — Silas Wegg 



-M- 



And give us a round of toast or two, first cutting off 
the crust in consequence of tender teeth and not too 
many of 'em, which Gamp himself, Mrs. Chuzzlewit, 
being in liquor struck out four, two single and two 
double, which was took by Mrs. Harris as a keepsake 
and is carried in her pocket at this present day." 

— Mrs. Gamp 



-M 



" I beg your parding, young man, but who do you call a 
woman? Did you make that remark to me, sir? Did 
you apply that name to me, I ask of you, sir? Yes, 
of course you did! Everybody may insult me in my 
own house, while my husband sits sleeping down- 
stairs, and taking no more notice than if I was a dog 
in the streets." — Mrs. Raddle 

"What do you strike the boy for, you brute? Do you 
think he 's your wife, you willin? " — Sketches by Boz 



Oh, wooman, lovely wooman, what a sex you are ! '* 

— Mr. Turveydrop 



^©ptemlbeF 



The wery planks she walked on was as high esteemed 
as the waterbrooks is by the hart that never rejices." 

— Captain Cuttle 

My papa was in the habit of saying, * Emma's form is 
fragile, but her grasp of a subject is inferior to 
none/ " — Mrs. Micawber 



She dotes on poetry, sir ; she adores it ! I may say that 
her whole soul and mind are wound up and entwined 
with it." —Of Mrs. Leo Hunter 

The goddess Diana, sir, that calls aloud for the chase, is 
not more particular in her behavior than Sophia 
Wackles." — Dick Swiveller 



" * Tim Linkinwater, sir,* said brother Charles ; * give me 
your hand, sir. This is your birthday. How dare 
you talk about anything else till you have been 
wished many happy returns of the day, Tim Linkin- 
water? God bless you, Tim! God bless you! ' * My 
dear brother,' said the other, seizing Tim's disengaged 
fist, * Tim Linkinwater looks ten years younger than 
he did on his last birthday.' ' Brother Ned, my dear 
boy,' returned the other old fellow, * I believe that 
Tim Linkinwater was born a hundred and fifty years 
old, and is gradually coming down to five and twenty ; 
for he 's younger every birthday than he was the 
year before.' * So he is, brother Charles, so he is.* 
replied brother Ned. * There 's not a doubt about it.' 
* Remember, Tim,' said brother Charles, * that we dine 
at half past five today.' " — The Brothers Cheeryble 




ptefflfeep 



-m 



There was Mr. Spottletoe, who was so bald and had such 
big whiskers that he seemed to have stopped his hair, 
in the very act of falling off his head, and to have 
fastened it, by the use of some powerful remedy, ir- 
revocably on his face." — From Martin Chuzzlewit 



If I had known who you were, I should have rushed 
out, and caught you in my arms,* said Bob Sawyer; 
* but upon my life, I thought you were the King's 
taxes, I did, indeed, and I was just going to say that I 
was n't at home, but if you 'd leave a message I 'd 
be sure to give it to myself; for he don't know me: 
no more does the Lighting and Paving. I think 
the Church-rates guesses who I am, and I know the 
Water-works does, because I drew a tooth of his when 
I first came down here. But come in, come in ! '" 

— Bob Sawyer 



** * Is it Pumblechook's house that has been broken into, 
then?' 

"'That's it, Pip,' said Joe; * and they took his 
till, and they took his cash-box, and they drinked his 
wine, and they partook of his wittles, and they 
slapped his face, and they pulled his nose, and they 
tied him up to his bedpust, and they giv' him a dozen, 
and they stuffed his mouth full of flowering annuals 
to prewent his crying out. But he knowed Orlick, 
and Orlick 's in the county jail.* ** — Joe Gargery 



-il 




ptesKitei?' 



We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby ; 
the regular education system. C-1-e-a-n, clean, verb 
active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n- win, d-e-r, 
der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this 
out of book, he goes and does it. It 's just the same 
principle as the use of the globes. B-o-t, bot, t-i-n, 
tin, bottin, n-e-y, bottinney, noun substantive, a 
knowledge of plants. When he has learned that bot- 
tinney means a knowledge of plants, he goes and 
knows 'em by weeding the garden. That *s our sys- 
tem, Nickleby: what do you think of it?" 

— Mr. Squeers 



-m 



" A select, convivial circle called the * Glorious ApoUers ' 
of which I have the honor to be Perpetual Grand." 

— Dick Swiveller 
" Curious circumstances about those initials. You will 
observe — P. M. — post meridian. In hasty notes to 
intimate acquaintances I sometimes sign myself * Aft- 
ernoon.' It amuses my friends very much." 

— Mr. Magnus 



If ever there was a donkey trespassing on my green, 
there was cme this afternoon at four o'clock. A cold 
feeling came over me from head to foot and I know 
it was a donkey." — Betsy Trotwood 



-M 



I know you 're going to scold me ! ' 

" * My sweet, I am only going to reason. 



" * Oh, but reasoning, is worse than scolding ! I 
did n't marry to be reasoned with. If you meant to 
reason with such a poor little thing as I am you 
ought to have told me so, you cruel boy ! ' " 

— David Copperfield and his wife 



^k^lf 



w 



October 



HEN no more sighs are heaved for Little Nell, 
When Pickwick's name has lost its magic 
charm, 
When love is dead in Dolly Varden's eye, 
When David's grief no longer casts a spell. 

When Carton's chivalry is changed to harm. 
When crickets sing not — then will Dickens die. 

— William Dowsing 



mt 



October 



May this house live upon the fatness of the land ; may 
corn and wine be plentiful therein ; may it grow, may 
it thrive, may it prosper, may it advance, may it pro- 
ceed, may it press forward ! " — Mr. Chadband 



What a delicious thing is a oyster ! ' remarked Mr. 
Cla5^ole, after he had swallowed it. * What a pity 
it is, a number of 'em should ever make you feel 
uncomfortable; isn't it, Charlotte?' 

*' ' It 's quite a cruelty,' said Charlotte. 

" * So it is,' acquiesced Mr. Claypole. A'n't yer fond 
of oysters? ' " — Noah Claypole 



And say, sir, that I was wafted here upon the pinions 
of concord; that I came to remove, with the rake of 
friendship, the seeds of mutual wiolence and heart- 
burning, and to sow in their place, the germs of 
social harmony. Will you have the goodness to 
charge yourself with that commission, sir? " 

— Dick Swiveller 



-m 



Since that, all is fled, save gall ! " — Mr. Venus 

Nothink 's nat'ral to me but to be alone and lorn." 

— Mrs. Gummidge 

Think ! I 've got enough to do, and little enough to get 

for it, without thinking ! Thinking ! " — Coavinses 




DJDep 



YouVe hit it, sir! Plenty of subjects going about, 
for them that know how to put salt upon their tails. 
That 's what 's wanted. A man need n't go far to 
find a subject if he *s ready with his salt-box.* Mr. 
Pumblechook added, after a short interval of reflec- 
tion, * Look at Pork alone. There *s a subject ! If 
you want a subject, look at Pork!*'* 

— Mr. Pumblechook 



" She 's always a-kissin' of me, whether I like it or not. 
She *s always a-doin ' of it, Mr. Bumble, sir ; she 
chucks me under the chin, please sir, and makes all 
manner of love.*' — Noah Claypole 

" The quick eye of affection is not to be blinded when 
of the female sex.** — Mrs. Micawber 

" A fine figger of a woman — a little redness or a little 
matter of bone here or there, what does it signify 
to me?** — Joe Gargery 

" Show me the man who says anything against women 
as women, and I boldly declare he is not a man ! ** 

— Mr. Snodgrass 



If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, 
genteel highwayman or patriot — and they're the 
same thing,* thought Mr. Tappertit, musing among 
the nine-pins, * I should have been all right. But to 
drag out an ignoble existence unbeknown to man- 
kind in general — patience! I will be famous yet. 
A voice within me keeps on whispering Greatness. 
I shall burst out one of these days, and when I do^ 




S)eF 



what power can keep me down? I feel my soul 
getting into my head at the idea. More drink there ! * " 

— Simon Tappertit 



Ho, master, ho, mim ! * cried Miggs, * can I constrain 
my feelings in these here once agin united moments! 
Ho, here 's blessedness among relations, sir ! Here 's 
forgiveness of injuries, here's amicableness ! Ho, 
good gracious ! ' " — Miggs 



" Mr. F. was so devoted to me that he could never bear 
me out of his sight though of course I am unable to 
say how long that might have lasted if he had n't 
been cut short while I was a new broom worthy man 
but not poetical manly prose but not romance." 

EM — Flora Finching 
u 

" * In at the palace one day and out at the window the 
next. Philosopher, sir?' 

" * An observer of human nature, sir.' 
" * Ah, so am I. Most people are when they 've 
little to do and less to get. Poet, sir?'" 

— Mr. Jingle 



Mr. Micawber has his faults. I do not deny that he is 
improvident. I do not deny that he has kept me in 
the dark as to his resources and his liabilities, both, 
but I will never desert Mr. Micawber. I will never 
do it ! It 's of no use asking me ! " 

— Mrs. Micawber 



(Q)df©Ib)©ji» 

-13 

"Mr. Skimpole, having (as he added with delightful 
gaiety) nothing to live upon but love, fell in love, 
and married, and surrounded himself with rosy 
cheeks. His good friend Jarndyce and some other 
of his good friends then helped him, in quicker or 
slower succession, to several openings in life; but 
to no purpose, for he must confess to two of the 
oddest infirmities in the world; one was, that he 
had no idea of time: the other, that he had no idea 
of money. In consequence of which, he never kept 
an appointment, never could transact any business 
and never knew the value of anything ! " 

— From Bleak House 



And of them Dodson and Fogg, as does these sorts 
o' things on spec,* continued Mr. Weller, * as well as 
for the other kind and gen'rous people o* the same 
profession, as sets people by the ears, free gratis for 
nothin', and sets their clerks to work to find out 
little disputes among their neighbors and acquaint- 
ances as vants settlin' by means o * law-suits — all I 
can say o' them is, that I vish they had the revard 
I 'd give 'em.' " — Sam Weller 



-13 



' Bunsby ! ' said the captain, appealing to him solemnly, 
*what do you make of this? There you sit, a man 
as has had his head broke from infancy up'ards, and 
has got a new opinion into it at every seam as has 
been opened. Now what do you make o' this? ' 
** * If so be,' returned Bunsby, with unusual prompti- 



(Qetobep 



tude, * as he 's dead, my opinion is he won't come 
back no more. If so be as he 's alive, my opinion is 
he will. Do I say he will? No. Why not? Be- 
cause the bearings of this obserwation lays in the 
application on it.* " — Captains Cuttle and Bunsby 



.|j^ 



" * I am as well as I never ham.' 

" * Have you any apartments available, ma'am?' 
" * Mr. -Grewgious, I will not deceive you ; far from 
it. I have apartments available.' With the air ' Con- 
vey me to the stake, if you will, but while I live I 
will be candid.' " — Mrs. Billickin 



_l!3_ 



"Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, and 
when you are old, you will never depart from it. 
Overhaul the book. 

" Wal 'r is what you may call an out'ard and visible 
sign of an in'ard and spiritual grasp, and when found, 

— Captain Cuttle 



-m 



What a hard thing it is that when a cove has once gone 
a little wrong, a cove's own father should be always 
a-throwing it in his face behind his back ! It 's 
enough to make a cove go and do something out of 
spite." — Rob the Grinder 



«ira 



* Oh, Lord ! ' gasps Mr. Smallweed, looking about him 
breathless, from an arm-chair. * Oh, dear me ! Oh, 
my bones and back! Oh, my aches and pains! Sit 




DBeF 

down, you dancing, prancing, shambling, scrambling 
poll parrot! Sit down! ' bestowing upon Mrs. Small- 
weed, with great volubility, the endearing epithet of 
* a pig-headed Jackdaw,' repeated a surprising num- 
ber of times." — Grandfather Smallweed 



-m 



" Ah, poultry, poultry ! You little thought when you 
were a young fledgling what was in store for you. 
You little thought you was to be the refreshment 
beneath this humble roof for one as — call it a weak- 
ness, if you will, but may I — may I ? " 

— Mr. Pumblechook 



-m 



" An individual of whom it may be said in the language 
of the poet that none but himself can in any way 
come up to him." — Of Chevy Slyme 

" People who can carve poultry are great fools if they 
own it, and people who can't have no wish to learn." 

— Sketches by Boz 



_P 



" I may have a conviction that Mr. Micawber's manners 
peculiarly qualify him for the banking business. I 
may argue within myself that if I had a deposit at 
a banking-house the manners of Mr. Micawber as 
representing that banking-house, would inspire confi- 
dence, and must extend the connection. But if the 
various banking-houses refuse to avail themselves of 
Mr. Micawber's abilities, or receive the offer of them 
with contumely, what is the use of dwelling on that 
idea?" — Mrs. Micawber 



(Q)€j©jber 



Be careful how you go, my dear friend. Be sure to 
pick your way among the timber, for all the rusty 
nails are upwards. There 's a dog in the lane. He 
bit a man last night, and a woman the night before, 
and last Tuesday he killed a child — but that was in 
play. Don't go too near him.' 

** ' Which side of the road is he, sir? ' asked Brass, 
in great dismay. 

" * He lives on the right hand,' said Quilp, * but 
sometimes he hides on the left, ready for a spring. 
He 's uncertain in that respect. Mind you take care 
of yourself. I '11 never forgive you if you don't. 
There, the light 's out — never mind — you know the 
way — straight on ! ' " — Quilp 



" We went off straight to look at the Blacking Ware 'us. 
But we did n't find that it come up to its likeness in 
the red bills at the shop doors. I meantersay as it is 
there drawed too architectooralooral." — Joe Gargery 

" A pump is a very chaste practice. I have found that a 
lamp-post is calculated to refine the mind and give it 
a classical tendency." — Mr. Pecksniff 



i 



* Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance that such a 
man as So and So should be acquiring a large property 
by the most infamous and odious means, and, not- 
withstanding all the crimes of which he has been 
guilty, should be tolerated and abetted by your citi- 
zens? He is a public nuisance is he not? * Yes, sir.' 
* A convicted liar? ' * Yes, sir.' * He has been kicked, 



and some architects are clever at building on 'em 
when they're made. But it '11 come right in the end, 
it '11 all come right. In the mean time, sir, we have 
a deal to do, and far to go. So sharp 's the word, and 
jolly.' " — Mark Tapley 



-m 



Oh, woman, God beloved in Old Jerusalem! The best 
among us need deal lightly with thy faults, if only 
for the punishment thy nature will endure, in bear- 
ing heavy evidence against us, on the Day of Judg- 
ment I " — From Martin Chuzzlewit 



November 



HE good, the gentle, high-gifted, ever friendly, 
noble Dickens— every inch of him an honest man. 

— Carlyle 



K?^Wy^rTf^vfT-^j?P-e*ir'"'-7rrffPrTfr^^^^^ 



November 



Now, Mr. Tapley/ said Mark, giving himself a tre- 
mendous blow in the chest by way of a reviver, * just 
you attend to what I Ve got to say. Things is look- 
ing about as bad as they can look, young man. 
You '11 not have such an opportunity for showing 
your jolly disposition, my fine fellow, as long as you 
live, and therefore, Tapley, now 's your time to come 
out strong, or never.* " — Mark Tapley 



"Do you say they were crooked? Oh, what a vale of 
tears we live in. Do we say crooked? We '11 not say 
very crooked, ma'am. Let us not bear hard on the 
weaknesses of the deceased. He is gone, ma'am, 
to where his legs will never come in question. We 
will content ourselves with crooked." 

— Sampson Brass 



" We never know the value of some wines and fig-trees 
till we lose 'em. So much the worse, sir, for them 
as has the slighting of 'em on their consciences when 
they're gone to be in full blow elsewhere." 

— Susan Nipper 



t&^isf ! m '' 'Ji' . »^ ' i ' x x uMism 



You have forgotten your coat,' said Mr. Pickwick. 
* Eh? ' said Jingle. * Spout — dear relation — uncle 
Tom — couldn't help it — must eat, you know. 
Wants of nature — and all that. Gone, my dear sir 



J^0^^^gIRri!]p)(S!i^ 



— last coat — can't help it. Lived on a pair of 
boots — whole fortnight. Silk umbrella — ivory 
handle — week — fact — honor — ask Job — knows 
it.' * Lived for three weeks upon a pair of boots, and 
a silk umbrella, with an ivory handle ! ' exclaimed 
Mr. Pickwick, who had only heard of such things in 
shipwrecks. * True,' said Jingle, nodding his head. 
* Pawnbroker's shop — duplicates here. * Oh,' said 
Mr. Pickwick, much relieved, * I understand, you 
pawned your wardrobe.'" — Mr. Jingle 



Everything — Job's too — all shirts gone — never mind 

— saves washing. Nothing soon — lie in bed — starve 

— die — inquest — little bone house — poor prisoner 

— common necessaries — hush it up — gentlemen of 
the jury — warden's tradesmen — keep it snug — 
natural death — coroner's order — workhouse fun- 
eral — serve him right — all over — drop the cur- 
tain." —The Same 



The late Mr. Bardell, after enjoying for many years 
the esteem and confidence of his sovereign, as one of 
the guardians of his royal revenues, glided almost 
imperceptibly from the world, to seek elsewhere for 
that repose and peace which a custom-house can never 
afford." — Sergeant Buzfuz 



" Ere we had yet detected the housemaid in selling the 
feathers out of the spare bed. Gout, flying upwards, 
soared with Mr. F. to another sphere." 

— Flora Finching 




If I could by any means wash out the remembrance 
of that day, I should sink into the silent tomb with a 
gleam of joy." — Mr. Toots 



* I take a particular case/ returned the doctor, * as illus- 
trating my remark. In this portion of Mr. Crimple's 
leg, there is a certain amount of animal oil. In every 
one of Mr. Crimple's joints, sir, there is more or less 
of the same deposit. Very good. If Mr. Crimple 
neglects his meals, or fails to take his proper quantity 
of rest, that oil wanes, and becomes exhausted. What 
is the consequence? Mr. Crimple's bones sink down 
into their sockets, sir, and Mr. Crimple becomes a 
weazen, puny, stunted, miserable man ! ' " 

— Doctor Jobling 



T. I. presents compt. to I. T. and T. I. begs to say that 
I see the advertisement and she will do herself the 
pleasure of calling on you at 12 o'clock. T. I. as to 
apologize to I. T. of the shortness of notice, but I 
hope it will not inconvenience you. 
"I remain yours Truly 

"Wednesday evening." 

— Sketches by Boz 



" My name? No. I want to take a Alfred David. I am 
a man as gets my living and as seeks to get my living 
by the sweat of my brow. Not to risk being done 
out of the sweat of my brow, by any chances, I 
should wish afore going further to be sworn in." 




r 



"And don't you know that I won*t have no Poll 
Parrotting on the part of my daughter? No, nor yet 
that I won't take no Poll Parrotting from no man ! " 

— Rogue Riderhood 



Do not put itself out of humor, it is a pretty, bewitch- 
ing little demd countenance, and it should not be out 
of humor, for it spoils its loveliness, and makes it 
cross and gloomy like a frightful, naughty, demd 
hobgoblin. She will be a lovely widow. I shall be 
a bod^. Some handsome women will weep. She will 
laugh demnebly ! " — Mr, Mantalini 



I should like it of all things, I assure you; but I am 
far too 'umble. There are people enough to tread 
upon me in my lowly state without my doing out- 
rage to their feelings by possessing learning. Learn- 
ing is n't for me. Better for a person like me not to 
aspire." — Uriah Heep 



" Ever Injured Miss Pecksniff, Ere this reaches you, the 
undersigned will be — if not a corpse — on the way 
to Van Diemen's Land. Send not in pursuit. I never 
will be taken alive ! I love another. She is Another's. 
Everything appears to be somebody else's. Nothing 
in the world is mine — not even my Situation — 
which I have forfeited — by my rash conduct — in 
running away. Farewell! Be the proud bride of a 
ducal coronet, and forget me ! Long may it be before 
you know the anguish with which I now subscribe 



( 




Q)(iF 



myself — amid the tempestuous bowlings of the — 
sailors. 

" Unalterably 

" Never yours," 

— Augustus Moddle 



-m 



"This is either insanity or intoxication, and my sus- 
picion is that it 's intoxication." — Miss Murdstone 






" A lovely thing it must be fur to learn young folks 
wot 's right, and fur to know wot the^ know wot 
you do it ! " — Rogue Riderhood 

" The question about everything was, would it bring a 
blush to the cheek of the young person." 

— Mr. Podsnap 



Dancing is such a dreadful thing! If I were wicked 
enough and strong enough to kill anyone, it would be 
my partner." — Miss Podsnap 

Don't you know that it *s very naughty and unfeminine 
and a perversion of the properties wisely and benig- 
nantly transmitted to us, with expansive powers to 
be roused from their dormant state through the 
medium of cultivation? " — Mrs. Jarley 



" In Italy is she really with the grapes and figs growing 
everywhere and lava necklaces and bracelets too that 
land of poetry with burning mountains picturesque 
beyond belief though if the organ boys come away 



Jfm^inn^eip 



from the neighborhood not to be scorched nobody can 
wonder being so young and bringing their white mice 
with them most humane.'* — Flora Pinching 



My meaning, Ned, is obvious — I observe another fly 
in the cream- jug, but have the goodness not to take 
it out as you did the first, for their walk, when their 
legs are milky, is extremely ungraceful and disagree- 
able — my meaning is, that you must do as I did; 
that you must marry well and make the most of 
yourself.* 

" * A mere fortune-hunter ! * cried the son, indig- 
nantly. 

" * What in the devil's name, Ned, would you be ! * 
returned the father." — Mr. Chester 



-m 



** In the mildest language, I adore you. Will you be so 
kind as to allow me to file a declaration? I have 
walked up and down of an evening, opposite Jellyby's 
house, only to look upon the bricks that once con- 
tained Thee." —Mr. Guppy 

" What a world of gammon and spinnage it is, though, 
ain't it? " — Miss Mowcher 



" * I wish to goodness. Ma, that you 'd loll a little ! * 
"*How! Loll! I hope I am incapable of it!'" 

— Mrs. Wilfer and Lavinia 
"* Brisk*! Whence the low expression?" 

— Mrs. Wilfer 




Q®f 



-B 



" Miss Brobity*s being, young man, was deeply imbued 
with homage to Mind. She revered Mind, when 
launched, or as I say, precipitated, on an extensive 
knowledge of the world." — Mr. Sapsea 

" * Feasts of reason, sir, and flows of soul,* as somebody 
who wrote a sonnet to Mrs. Leo Hunter on her 
breakfasts feelingly and originally said." 

— Mr. Leo Hunter 



" The gay the gay and festive scene, 
The halls the halls of dazzling light." 

— Silas Wegg 
The mind naturally falls, shall I say into a reverie, or 
into a retrospect, on a day like this." 

— Mrs. Wilfer 



" After that we had a dish of very little pieces of pork, 
fried with pigs' kidneys; after that, a fowl; after 
that, something very red and stringy, which I think 
was veal; and after that, two tiny little new-born- 
baby-looking turkeys, very red and very swollen." 

— Letters 



-Rl 



It 's a stew of tripe,' said the landlord smacking his 
lips, * and cow-heel,* smacking them once more, * and 
bacon,' smacking them once more, * and steak,' smack- 
ing them for the fourth time, * and peas, cauliflowers, 
new potatoes, and sparrow-grass, all working up to- 
gether in one delicious gravy.' Having come to the 




D)(iF 



climax, he smacked his lips a great many times, and 
taking a long hearty sniff of the fragrance that was 
hovering about, put on the cover again with the air 
of one whose toils on earth were over." 
jpn — Landlord of the Jolly Sandboys 

For these and all other blessings, brother Charles,' 
said Ned. 

" * Lord, make us truly thankful, brother Ned,' said 
Charles. Whereupon the apoplectic butler whisked 
off the top of the soup tureen, and shot, all at once, 
into a state of violent activity." 

— The Brothers Cheeryble 



-m 



" I will joyfully come up to dine at your house and meet 
the Dane (Hans Christian Anderson) whose books I 
honor and whose — to make that sentiment complete 
I want something that would sound like * Bones I 
love.' But I can't get anything that unites reason 
with beauty." — Letters 



"A youngish, sallowish gentleman in spectacles with a 
lumpy forehead, here caused a profound sensation by 
saying, in a raised voice, * Esker — ? ' and then stop- 
ping dead. * Mais oui,' said the French gentleman, 
* quoi done?' But he had delivered himself of all 
that he found behind his lumps and spake for the 

— From Our Mutual Friend 



Mrs. Podsnap: fine woman for Professor Owen, quan- 
tity of bone, neck and nostrils like a rocking-horse, 




hard features, majestic head-dress in which Podsnap 
had hung golden offerings." 

— From Our Mutual Friend 
The Blood Drinker ' will die with that girl ; and she 's 
the only sylph / ever saw that could stand on one leg 
and play the tambourine on her other knee, like a 
sylph ! " — Vincent Crummies 



.il 



There! Now drat you, Betsey, don't be long!" said 
Mrs. Gamp, apostrophising her absent friend. " For 
I can't abear to wait, I do assure you. To wotever 
place I goes, I sticks to this one mortar, * I 'm easy 
pleased; it is but little as I wants; but I must have 
that little of the best, and to the minit when the 
clock strikes, else we do not part as I could wish, but 
bearin' malice in our arts.' " — Mrs. Gamp 



-M 



" If you have anything to say contrairy to the character 
of Mrs. Harris, which well I knows behind her back, 
afore her face or anywhere is not to be impeaged." 

— Mrs. Gamp 
" Polly, put the kettle on! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! I 'm 
a devil, I 'm a devil ! Never say die ! " 
KTI — Grip, the Raven 

" The die is cast. — All is over. Hiding the ravages of 
care with a sickly mask of mirth, I have not informed 
you this evening that there is no hope of the remit- 
tance. The bolt is impending and the tree must fall. 
" From the Beggared Outcast — W. M." 

— Mr. Micawber 



December 



HE chimes ring out their welcome strains and free, 
On earth goodwill to men of low degree : 
Let all enjoy life's happiness benign, 
And share the goodness of the Hand Divine. 

—Robert Allibut: Tribute to Dickens' Works 



December 



One wintry evening, a keen north wind arose as it grew 
dark, and night came on with black and dismal looks. 
A bitter storm of sleet, sharp, dense, and icy-cold, 
swept the wet streets, and rattled on the trembling 
windows. Sign-boards, shaken past endurance in 
their creaking frames, fell crashing on the pavement; 
old, tottering chimneys reeled and staggered in the 
blast; and many a steeple rocked again that night, 
as though the earth were troubled." 

— From Barnaby Rudge 



Cheerily, though there were none abroad to see it, 
shown the Maypole light that evening. Blessings on 
the red — deep, ruby, glowing red — old curtain of 
the window; blending into one rich stream of bright- 
ness, fire and candle, meat, drink, and company, and 
gleaming like a jovial eye upon the bleak waste out 
of doors! Within, what carpet like its crunching 
sand, what music merry as its crackling logs, what 
perfume like its kitchen's dainty breath, what weather 
genial as its hearty warmth! Blessings on the old 
house, how sturdily it stood ! " — The Maypole 



m^imm^mm^f^ 



'What becomes of the old giants? They're usually 
kept in carawans to wait upon the dwarfs. It 's 
better that, than letting 'em go upon the parish or 
about the streets,' said Mr. Vuffin. ' Once make a 
giant common and giants will never draw again. 



]^(g(DB2iniIbeF 



Look at wooden legs. If there was only one man 
with a wooden leg, what a property he 'd be ! ' " 

— Mr. Vuffin 



This is the infallible and invaluable composition for re- 
moving all sorts of stain, rust, dirt, mildew, spick, 
speck, spot or spatter, from silk, satin, linen, cambric, 
cloth, crape, stuff, carpet, merino, muslin, bombazine, 
or woollens. Wine-stains, fruit-stains, beer-stains, 
water-stains, paint-stains, pitch-stains, any stains, all 
come out at one rub.'* — The Peddler 






" Oh, my lungs and liver, get out of the shop ! Oh, what 
do you want? Oh, my eyes and limbs, what do you 
want? Oh, goroo!'* — Dreadful Shopkeeper 

" Look'ee here ; I forgot myself half a minute ago. What 
I said was low ; that 's what it was ; low. Look'ee 
here ; look over it ! I ain't a-going to be low. I know 
what 's due to you both and now you may count on 
me always having a genteel muzzle on." 

— Magwitch 



" The pigs is well ; the cows is well ; the boys is bob- 
bish." — Mrs. Squeers 

*' Measles, rheumatics, whooping-cough, fevers, agers and 
lumbagers is all philosophy together." 

— Mr. Squeers 

" It was as true as turnips is. It was as true as taxis is, 
and nothing is truer than them." — Mr. Barkis 



Churchyard ! If it war n't for me you 'd have been to 
the churchyard long ago and stayed there. Who 
brought you up by hand?' 

" * You did/ 

" * And why did I do it, I should like to know? ' 

" * I don't know.' 

" * / don't ! I 'd never do it again ! I may truly say 
I 've never had this apron of mine off since born you 
were. It 's bad enough to be a blacksmith's wife — 
and him a Gargery — without being your, mother ! ' " 

— Mrs. Joe Gargery 



I had better go into the House and die. I am a lone, 
lorn creetur and had much better not make myself 
contrairy here. If thinks must go contrairy with my- 
self, let me go contrairy in my parish. Yes, yes, I 
feel more than other people do, and I show it more. 
It 's my misfortun'." — Mrs. Gummidge 



-H 



" And you need n't, Mr. Venus, be your black bottle. 
For surely I '11 be mine. 
And we '11 take a glass with a slice of lemon in it to 
which you're partial 
For auld lang syne." — Silas Wegg 



«in. 



Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for 
has been to retreat to a Swiss farm and live entirely 
surrounded by cows and china." — Mrs. Skewton 



]2)e©B2iDi]beF 



" I wish Africa was dead ! I hate it and detest it. It 's 
a beast ! " — Caddy Jellyby 



When she was solemnly tooled through the park by 
the side of her mother in a great, tall, custard-colored 
phaeton, she showed above the apron of that vehicle 
like a dejected young person sitting up in bed to take 
a startled look at things in general and very strongly 
desiring to get her head under the counterpane again." 

— Of Miss Podsnap 



" I *m not quite a fool and I 'm not blind, and I won't 
submit to it." —Charity Pecksniff 

" Ah ! It makes me blush for my f ellow-creeturs ! I wish 
I 'd been born a ox, I do ! " — Miss Miggs 

" I may not be Methoosalum but I am not a child in 
arms." 

" I may not be a peacock, but I have my eyes." 

— Susan Nipper 



I think he 's the victim of connubiality, as Bluebeard's 
domestic chaplain said, with tears of pity, when he 
buried him." — Sam Weller 

Mr. Bumble has been heard to say that in this reverse 
and degradation he has not even spirits enough to be 
thankful for being separated from his wife." 

— From Oliver Twist 

I can't consent, and I won't consent, and I never did 
consent and I never will consent to be lost in you. 
Swallow up everybody else, and welcome. The pe- 
culiarity of my temper is, ma'am, that I won't be 
swallowed up alive." — Mr. Flintwinch 




ijT* 



I will not say that I have reproached myself ; but there 
have been times when I have asked myself the ques- 
tion: what if her husband had been nearer on a level 
with her? If she had not had to look up quite so high, 
what might the stimulating action have been upon 
the liver?" — Mr. Sapsea 



"Thrown on the wide world, 
Doomed to wander and roam, 
Bereft of his parents 
Bereft of a home, 
A stranger to something 

And what 's-his-name joy. 
Behold little Edward, 
The poor peasant boy." 

— Silas Wegg 



" I want to get some reading — some fine, bold reading ; 
some splendid book in a gorging Lord Mayor's Show 
of wollumes, as '11 reach right down to your point of 
view and take time to go by you. How can I get that 
reading?" — Mr. Boffin 

" Not being a regular musical professional I should be 
loth to engage myself for that; and therefore when I 
dropped into poetry I should ask to be considered in 
the light of a friend." — Silas Wegg 



Joe — he 's asleep again ! ' * Very extraordinary boy, 
that,' said Mr. Pickwick, * does he always sleep in 



]p)®€®2ilbe3P 



this way?' 'Sleep!' said the old gentleman, 'he's 
always asleep. Goes on errands fast asleep, and 
snores as he waits at table.' * How very odd ! ' said 
Mr. Pickwick. * Ah ! odd indeed,' returned the old 
gentleman ; * I 'm proud of that boy — would n't part 
with him on any account — he 's a natural curios- 
ity.' " — From Pickwick Papers 



There are only two styles of portrait-painting, the seri- 
ous and the smirk ; and we always use the serious for 
professional people, and the smirk for private ladies 
and gentlemen who don't care much about looking 
clever." — Miss La Creevy 



She is a high-flyer at fashion. And her make is such 
that she does it credit. I ain't yet as fashionable as 
I may come to be. Heneryetty, old lady, this is the 
gentleman that 's going to decline and fall off the 
Rooshian Empire." — Mr. Boffin 



^m 



Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prisms are all very 
good words for the lips, especially prunes and 
prisms." — Mrs. General 



"It became a frequent custom with Pancks as he went 
home, jaded at night, to pass around by Bleeding 
Heart Yard, go quietly up the stairs, look in at Mr. 
Baptist's door, and finding him in his room to say, 
'Hallo, old chap! Altro!' To which Mr. Baptist 




would reply with innumerable bright nods and 
smiles, * Altro, Signore, Altro, altro, altro ! ' After 
this highly condensed conversation Mr. Pancks would 
go his way with an appearance of being lightened and 
refreshed." — From Little Dorrit 



Shake me up, somebody, if you '11 be so good,* says the 
voice from within the faintly struggling bundle into 
which he has collapsed, ' I have come to look after 
the property. Shake me up ; and call in the police on 
duty at the next house, to be explained to about the 
property. My solicitor will be here presently to pro- 
tect the property. Transportation or the gallows for 
anybody who shall touch the property ! ' As his duti- 
ful grandchildren set him up, panting, and putting 
him through the usual restorative process of shaking 
and punching, he still repeats like an echo, * the — the 
property ! The property ! — property ! ' " 

— Grandfather Smallweed 



A Christmas family-party! We know nothing in na- 
ture more delightful! There seems a magic in the 
very name of Christmas. Petty jealousies and dis- 
cords are forgotten; social feelings are awakened in 
bosoms to which they have long been strangers; 
father and son, or brother and sister, who have met 
and passed with averted gaze, or a look of cold recog- 
nition, for months before, proffer and return the cor- 
dial embrace, and bury their past animosities in their 
present happiness. Kindly hearts that have yearned 
towards each other, but have been withheld by false 
notions of pride and self-dignity, are again reunited. 




^ 



and all is kindness and benevolence! Would that 
Christmas lasted the whole year through (as it 
ought), and that the prejudices and passions which 
deform our better nature, were never called into 
action among those to whom they should ever be 
strangers ! " — From A Christmas Dinner 



" But they did n't devote the whole evening to music. 
After a while they played forfeits ; for it is good to be 
children sometimes and never better than at Christ- 
mas, when its mighty founder was a child himself." 

— C. D. 



-.i^ 



A Merry Christmas! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my 
good fellow, than I have given you for many a year.' 
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all and 
more. He became a good friend, as good a master, 
and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or 
any other good old city, town or borough, in the good 
old world. He had no further intercourse with 
spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence principle, 
and it was always said of him that he knew how to 
keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed that 
knowledge. May that be true and said of us, and of all 
of us.* " — From A Christmas Carol 



-E 



I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it 
all the year. I will live in the past, the present and 
the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within 
me. I will not shut out the lesson they teach." 

— Scrooge 




p 



-B 



" Mr. Pecksniff said grace — a short and pious grace — 
invoking a blessing on the appetites of those present, 
and committing all persons who had nothing to eat 
to the care o£ Providence ; whose business (so said the 
grace in effect) it clearly was to look after them. 
This done, they fell to with less ceremony than appe- 
tite, the table groaning under the weight of the 
abundance." — From Martin Chuzzlewit 



"That profeejus wretch! Oh, Betsy Prig, what wicked- 
ness you Ve showed this night, but never shall you 
darken Sairey's doors agen, you twining serpiant! 
Chose once, but chose no more. No partnership with 
Sairey Gamp agen ! " — Mrs. Gamp 






Whole ages have fled and their works decayed. 
And nations have scattered been; 
But the stout old Ivy shall never fade, 
From its hale and hearty, green. 
The brave old plant, in its lonely days. 
Shall fatten upon the past : 
For the stateliest building man can raise, 
Is the Ivy's food at last. 

Creeping on, where time has been, 

A rare old plant is the Ivy green." — C. D. 



-M 



I sez to Mrs. Harris only t 'other day, the last Monday 
evening as ever dawned upon this Piljian's Projiss 



]p)©€©iiilb©r 



of a mortal wale ; I sez to Mrs. Harris, when she sez 
to me : * Years and our trials, Mrs. Gamp, sets marks 
on us all ' — Say not the words, Mrs. Harris, if you 
and me is to be continueal friends, for sich is not the 
case." — Mrs. Gamp 



-m 



If a skipper stands out by Sen' George's Channel, mak- 
ing for the Downs, what 's right ahead of him? The 
Goodwins. He isn't forced to run upon the Good- 
wins, but he may. The bearings of this observation 
lays in the application on it. That ain't no part of 
my duty. Awast then, keep a bright lookout for'ard, 
and good luck to you ! " — Captain Bunsby 



" * Ado, Samivel.' 

"* Wot 's a JoP' 

"'Well, good-bye, then.'" —The Wellers 



* And so,' as Tiny Tim observed, ' God Bless Us Every 
One.' " — From A Christmas Carol 



]p)(i©(OTii]b©F 



Ah, Master of good enchantment, you have given us 
hours of ease and joy, and we thank you for them. 
But there is a greater gift than that. You have made 
us more willing to go cheerfully and comradely along 
the strange, crowded, winding way of human life, 
because you have deepened our faith that there is 
something of the divine on earth, and something of 
the human in heaven. 
— Henry Van Dyke: Scribner*s Magazine, June, 1912 



MAR 19 1913 . 



